LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE, 


AS  APPLIED  TO  THE 


WANTS  OF  THE  WEST; 


WITH  AN  ESSAY  ON 


Forest  Planting  on  the  Great  Plains. 


BY  H.  W.  S.  CLEVELAND, 

Landscape  Architect. 


CHICAGO  : 
JANSEN,  McCLURG 
1873. 


&  CO. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1873,  by 

JANSEN,  McCLURG  &  CO., 
in  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


.  GETTY  CENTER 


PREFACE. 


The  term  "Landscape  Architecture"  is  objectionable,  as  being 
only  figuratively  expressive  of  the  art  it  is  used  to  designate.  I 
make  use  of  it,  under  protest,  as  the  readiest  means  of  making  myself 
understood,  in  the  absence  of  a  more  appropriate  term. 

If  the  art  is  ever  developed  to  the  extent  I  believe  to  be  within 
its  legitimate  limits,  it  will  achieve  for  itself  a  name  worthy  of  its 
position.  Until  it  does  so,  it  is  idle  to  attempt  to  exalt  it  in  the 
world's  estimation,  by  giving  it  a  high  -  sounding  title.  My  object  in 
these  few  pages  is  simply  to  show  that,  by  whatever  name  it  may  be 
called,  the  subdivision  and  arrangement  of  land  for  the  occupation 
of  civilized  men,  is  an  art  demanding  the  exercise  of  ingenuity, 
judgment  and  taste,  and  one  which  nearly  concerns  the  interests  of 
real  estate  proprietors,  and  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  all  future 
occupants. 

A  considerable  portion  of  the  "  Essay  on  Forest  Planting  on  the 
Great  Plains,"  is  made  up  from  articles  I  have  contributed  from  time 
to  time  to  agricultural  and  scientific  papers.  All  the  correspondence, 
memoranda,  etc.,  which  I  had  collected  on  the  subject  for  two  years, 
during  which  I  was  engaged  in  its  investigation,  were  destroyed  in 
the  great  fire  of  October  9,  1871.  The  present  essay  has  been  pre- 
pared from  recollection,  with  the  aid  of  some  of  my  previously  pub- 
lished articles  which  had  been  preserved  by  friends,  together  with 
liberal  quotations,  bearing  upon  the  subject,  from  reliable  authors. 


Chicago,  Jan.,  1873. 


H.  W.  S.  CLEVELAND. 


CONTENTS. 


PART  I. 

CHAPTER  I. 

Inadequate  ideas  of  the  scope  of  Landscape  Architecture  —  Its 
true  definition  _    n 

CHAPTER  II. 

Illustration  of  the  meaning  of  Landscape  Architecture  as  applied 
to  a  private  estate.      18 

CHAPTER  III. 

Landscape  Architecture  applied  to  the  arrangement  of  towns  — 
Duties  and  responsibilities  incident  to  the  work  —  Rectangular 
arrangement  objectionable  even  on  level  sites  —  Illustrated  by 
reference  to  Chicago  _    28 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Advantages  to  be  secured  by  timely  forethought  —  Injurious  results 
of  rectangular  arrangement  on  an  irregular  surface  —  Suburban 
additions  _      46 

CHAPTER  V. 

City  parks  —  Lessons  of  the  Central  Park  —  Difficulty  of  selecting 
a  site  for  a  park  —  Method  of  relief — Advantages  of  apian  — 
Proper  management  of  street  planting    61 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Importance  of  the  work  we  have  to  do  in  preparing  the  new 
country  for  civilized  habitation  —  Landscape  Architecture  the 
art  which  lies  at  its  foundation    73 


PART  II. 


Forest  Planting  on  the  Great  Plains. 


93 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

INADEQUATE  IDEAS  OF  THE  SCOPE  OF  LANDSCAPE  ARCHI- 
TECTURE ITS  TRUE  DEFINITION. 

HE  appearance  of  Downing's  "Landscape  Gar- 
dening," about  thirty-five  years  ago,  conveyed 
to  a  large  portion  of  the  American  public  the 
first  intimation  of  the  existence  of  an  art,  having  distinct 
principles  and  laws  of  its  own,  and  dealing  solely  with 
the  problems  involved  in  the  tasteful  arrangement  of 
public  or  private  grounds. 

Before  the  introduction  of  railroads,  the  luxury  of  a 
country  residence  for  men  engaged  in  active  business  in 
the  city,  was  necessarily  confined  to  so  small  a  portion  of 
the  population,  that  no  general  interest  was  felt  in  the 
subject  of  the  arrangement  of  grounds,  and  the  demand 
for  the  services  of  an  educated  landscape  gardener  was 
too  limited  to  warrant  the  adoption  of  the  profession  as  a 
means  of  support.  With  the  facilities  of  locomotion 
afforded  by  steam  transport,  came  the  demand  for  the 
luxury  of  a  rural  home,  and  every  city  began  sending 
out  suburban  colonies  along  the  lines  thus  rendered 
accessible. 


12 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


The  new  colonists  had,  however,  for  the  most  part, 
little  knowledge  of  country  life,  and  no  conception  even 
of  the  existence  of  governing  principles  for  the  arrange- 
ment of  grounds,  the  grouping  of  trees  to  secure  tasteful 
effects  of  shape  and  color,  or  the  artistic  development  of 
naturally  beautiful  or  picturesque  features  to  attain  a 
realization  of  the  landscape  painter's  dreams. 

To  the  large  class  who  found  themselves  thus  situated, 
delighted  to  escape  from  the  restraints  and  the  turmoil  and 
dirt  of  the  city,  and  eager  to  secure  the  utmost  possible 
enjoyment  from  the  new  sources  thus  opened  to  them,  yet 
feeling  continually  oppressed  with  the  sense  of  their  own 
ignorance  and  inexperience,  Downing's  book  came  like  a 
new  revelation,  and  attained  at  once  a  degree  of  success 
which  was  due  alike  to  the  admirable  character  of  the 
work  itself  and  to  the  fact  of  its  appearing  just  in  time  to 
meet  a  great  popular  want. 

Nothing  like  it  had  previously  appeared  in  this  coun- 
try, and  so  few  persons  had  any  knowledge  of  foreign 
works  on  the  subject,  that  his  skillful  adaptation  of  the 
principles  of  the  art  to  our  means,  necessities  and  oppor- 
tunities, had  all  the  zest  and  freshness  of  original  matter. 

Since  then  the  demand  and  supply  have  gone  on 
annually  increasing,  till  city  and  country  have  become  so 
merged  that  it  is  hard  to  say  where  one  ends  and  the 
other  begins.  The  radius  of  available  territory  for  sub- 
urban homes  has  extended  with  the  opening  of  new 
roads,  branches  and  lines  of  horse  cars.  Companies 
have  made  a  lucrative  business  of  buying  attractive  sites 
of  comparatively  wild  land  and  arranging  them  tastefully 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


13 


as  suburban  additions,  finding  ready  sales  for  lots  at 
prices  which  pay  a  fair  profit  on  the  cost  of  improvement. 
Everywhere  the  demand  has  proved  how  readily  the 
popular  heart  responds  to  the  opportunity,  and  the  revo- 
lution which  has  been  effected  in  the  condition  of  the 
country  surrounding  every  large  city  affords  sufficient 
evidence  of  the  innate  love  of  nature,  and  the  longing  to 
secure  the  enjoyment  of  her  attractions,  which  pervades 
the  popular  heart. 

As  a  natural  consequence,  books  and  treatises  upon 
landscape  gardening  and  rural  art,  have  multiplied  till  they 
have  became  an  important  branch  of  literature.  Vol- 
umes and  pamphlets  of  all  sorts  and  sizes;  original  works, 
compilations,  republications,  and  essays  in  the  pages  of 
horticultural  journals  have  flowed  from  the  press,  till  it 
would  seem  that  no  farther  elucidation  of  the  subject  was 
required,  or  could  be  conveyed  through  the  medium  of 
publication;  yet  after  twenty  years  experience  as  a  pro- 
fessional landscape  gardener,  I  am  continually  impressed 
with  the  inadequate  conception  of  the  scope  of  the  art, 
which  generally  prevails,  and  I  am  convinced  that  the 
popular  writers  on  the  subject  are  largely  responsible  for 
the  general  ignorance.  Not  that  they  have  failed  to 
explain  lucidly,  and  often  in  charming  style,  the  esthetic 
principles  of  the  art,  and  the  management  of  the  almost 
endless  variety  of  combinations  of  natural  and  artificial 
decorations,  whose  tasteful  introduction  may  often  add 
very  essentially  to  the  beauty  and  interest  of  a  country 
home ;  but  that  they  have  confined  themselves  so  exclu- 
sively to  such  details  that  the  idea  has  became  almost 


14 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


universal  that  landscape  gardening  is  solely  a  decorative 
art,  the  duties  of  which  are  comprised  in  the  grouping 
of  trees  to  secure  the  best  effects  of  form  and  color,  the 
disposition  of  wood,  lawn  and  water,  to  form  an  artistic 
landscape,  and  the  arrangement  of  all  the  details  of  orna- 
ment, such  as  flower  beds,  shrubbery,  rustic  work,  foun- 
tains, waterfalls,  etc.,  for  the  purpose  of  rendering  the 
place  attractive. 

The  evidences  of  this  are  continually  brought  home  to 
me  in  the  practice  of  my  profession. 

A  man  calls  upon  me  for  advice  in  regard  to  the 
arrangement  of  his  grounds,  and  tells  me  he  has  built  his 
house  and  made  various  improvements  by  grading  and 
clearing,  and  now  wants  me  to  tell  him  how  to  finish  it 
off.  On  visiting  his  place  I  find,  perhaps,  that  he  has 
placed  his  house  in  a  position  which  may  subject  him  to 
inconveniences  which  had  never  occurred  to  him,  or  that 
he  might  have  secured  advantages  by  placing  it  elsewhere 
which  are  impossible  where  it  is.  He  has  expended  a 
large  sum  in  grubbing  up  what  he  calls  underbrush,  and 
has  thus  destroyed  the  beauty  of  a  natural  wood,  which 
now  consists  only  of  a  collection  of  gaunt,  naked  looking 
steins  of  trees  with  mere  tufts  of  foliage  on  their  tops, 
which  by  no  possibility  can  ever  be  made  attractive  either 
as  individuals  or  groups.  Elsewhere  he  has  attempted 
to  improve  the  grade  by  cutting  down  a  hill  which  marred 
the  even  slope  of  the  ground,  but  has  succeeded  only  in 
giving  it  a  formal  look  of  cheerless  discomfort.  This  he 
perceives,  but  instead  of  suspecting  that  it  may  be  the 
result  of  his  own  mistakes,  he  only  imagines  it  to  be  for 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


15 


the  want  of  what  remains  to  be  done,  which  he  expects 
me  to  direct.  In  other  words,  after  destroying  the  natural 
beauty  of  the  place,  he  looks  to  me  to  make  it  attractive 
by  the  introduction  of  artificial  decorations,  and  not 
unfrequently  he  proceeds  to  give  me  directions  as  to  the 
kind  of  ornaments  he  would  like,  and  where  and  how  they 
are  to  be  bestowed ;  a  fountain  garishly  displayed  for  the 
admiration  of  every  wayfarer  on  the  street ;  a  rustic  arbor 
or  seat,  not  where  any  one  would  ever  be  tempted  to 
make  use  of  it,  but  where  it  may  most  conspicuously  pro- 
claim that  this  is  the  abode  of  rural  felicity ;  flower  beds, 
rock-work,  serpentine  walks,  all  to  be  arranged  with  the 
same  obvious  purpose  of  display ;  the  idea  throughout 
being  that  the  place  must  be  dressed  up  to  look  pretty, 
that  the  landscape  gardener's  duty  is  simply  to  arrange 
the  dressing,  and  the  test  of  his  skill  consists  in  making 
the  most  elaborate  display  of  such  baby-house  furniture 
as  the  owner  is  willing  to  pay  for.  The  proportion  of 
those  who  have  applied  to  me  to  arrange  their  grounds 
from  the  outset,  fixing  the  positions  of  the  buildings,  and 
adapting  the  various  subdivisions  to  the  natural  features 
of  the  place,  so  as  to  secure  the  utmost  convenience,  with 
the  best  possible  development  of  graceful  or  picturesque 
effect,  is  insignificant  in  comparison  with  those  who  have 
sent  for  me  after  all  these  essential  characteristics  had 
been  established  beyond  recall,  and  desired  me  to  give 
the  finishing  touches  which  were  to  confer  the  crowning 
charm  of  attractive  interest. 

That  writers  on  landscape  gardening  in  this  country 
have  heretofore  failed  to  give  prominence  to  the  really 


i6 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


essential  principles  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  the  art, 
may  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  they  have  supposed 
themselves  to  be  addressing  a  class  of  readers  inhabiting 
districts  already  brought  to  a  condition  of  elaborate  cult- 
ure, and  who  would  therefore  be  mainly  interested  in 
details  of  decoration.  It  is  obvious  that  the  new  regions 
of  the  West  require  a  vast  amount  of  preliminary  prepar- 
ation before  much  attention  can  be  paid  to  mere  extran- 
eous ornament.  My  object  is  to  show  not  only  that  this 
preparatory  work  is  justly  the  province  of  the  landscape 
gardener,  but  that  it  is  in  reality  the  essentially  important 
part  of  his  art  which  gives  character  and  expression  to 
the  whole,  independently  of  mere  decorations,  which  may 
or  may  not  be  in  good  taste,  according  as  they  correspond 
with  the  expression  thus  conferred.  Yet  the  idea  so 
generally  prevails  that  the  landscape  gardener  has  no 
concern  with  these  preliminary  works,  that  I  was  repeat- 
edly told  when  I  first  thought  of  establishing  myself  in 
the  West,  that  I  need  not  hope  to  succeed ;  that  people 
were  too  much  occupied  in  the  great  work  of  developing 
the  resources  of  a  new  country  to  have  time  or  means  to 
devote  to  artistic  display,  and  that  the  most  I  could  hope 
for  would  be  an  occasional  call  to  lay  out  some  rich 
man's  garden  near  the  city,  and  for  that  I  should  probably 
be  indebted  to  the  ladies  of  the  family. 

Perceiving  that  these  opinions  were  based  upon  an 
entire  misconception  of  the  scope  of  the  art,  whose  prin- 
ciples I  conceived  to  lie  at  the  foundation  of  all  improve- 
ments of  land,  my  first  efforts  were  directed  to  making 
known  through  the  public  press,  and  otherwise,  as  oppor- 

2 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


17 


tunity  offered,  the  true  definition  of  the  term,  which  may 
be  expressed  in  a  condensed  form  as  follows : 

Landscape  Gardening,  or  more  properly  Landscape  Archi- 
tecture, is  the  art  of  arranging  land  so  as  to  adapt  it  most 
conveniently,  economically  and  gracefully,  to  any  of  the  varied 
wants  of  civilization. 

For  whatever  success  I  have  met  with  in  securing 
employment  since  coming  to  the  West  (which  I  gratefully 
acknowledge  to  have  been  far  beyond  my  expectations), 
I  feel  that  I  have  been  mainly  indebted  to  the  persistent 
urging  of  this  truth,  and  the  conviction  it  has  carried  to 
the  minds  of  those  interested  in  the  great  real  estate 
operations  of  the  West,  that  it  is  the  original  design  of 
arrangement  which  confers  upon  any  place  its  intrinsic 
expression  or  character  of  beauty  or  picturesqueness,  the 
want  of  which  cannot  be  atoned  for  by  any  amount  of 
subsequent  dressing  or  decoration. 

My  object  in  the  following  pages  is  to  prove  the  truth 
of  the  above  definition  by  familiar  illustrations,  and  set 
forth  the  extent  and  importance  of  its  application  to  the 
wants  of  the  West.  I  am  not  aware  that  any  writer 
has  ever  attempted  to  apply  the  principles  of  the  art,  on 
the  scale  which  I  believe  to  be  required  to  meet  the 
demands  which  devolve  upon  us,  yet  I  am  confident  that 
no  one  will  deny  that  it  involves  issues  of  vital  moment 
to  the  future  of  our  country  which  deserve  timely  con- 
sideration. 


1 8  LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ILLUSTRATION  OF  THE  MEANING  OF  LANDSCAPE  ARCHI- 
TECTURE AS  APPLIED  TO  A  PRIVATE  ESTATE. 


N  order  to  make  my  meaning  clear,  I  propose 
first  to  show  what  constitutes  landscape  archi- 
tecture in  the  arrangement  of  a  private  estate, 
and  then  to  illustrate  the  application  of  the  same  princi- 
ples to  larger  areas. 

Inexperienced  persons  continually  deceive  themselves 
with  the  idea  that  no  art  is  required  in  the  arrangement 
of  ground  for  the  ordinary  purposes  of  domestic  use  as  a 
family  residence,  beyond  the  exercise  of  intuitive  skill  and 
ingenuity,  and  almost  every  man  imagines,  till  he  tries, 
that  he  can  do  it  to  suit  himself  much  better  than 
another  can  do  it  for  him,  and  many  a  one  pays  dearly 
for  the  experience  which  convinces  him  of  his  error. 

In  selecting  a  building  site ;  in  arranging  the  relative 
positions  of  the  buildings  to  each  other,  and  to  the  objects 
for  which  they  are  designed ;  in  making  such  disposition 
of  the  different  departments  as  will  best  facilitate  the 
convenient  and  economical  performance  of  the  objects  of 
use  or  pleasure  to  which  they  are  devoted,  taking  advan- 
tage of  natural  features  whenever  they  are  available  to 
save  otherwise  unavoidable  outlay ;  having  due  regard  to 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


19 


necessities  of  drainage,  or  other  possible  provision  for 
health  or  comfort,  to  say  nothing  of  possible  future  wants 
to  which  reference  should  be  had,  many  problems  are 
involved,  the  satisfactory  solution  of  which  demands  the 
discipline  of  study  and  experience.  Objects  of  utility 
or  convenience  may  often  be  secured  by  availing  one's 
self  of  natural  advantages,  which  it  would  require  a  large 
outlay  to  attain  by  artificial  means.  Present  or  future 
wants  may  occur  to  the  mind  of  one  who  has  had  the  ad- 
vantage of  experience  which  might  not  suggest  themselves 
to  a  novice,  and  a  professional  man  might  find  means  of 
providing  for  such  wants  which  an  inexperienced  person 
would  never  think  of.  All  these  things  are  comprised  in 
the  essential  duties  of  the  landscape  architect,  independ- 
ently of  the  artistic  skill  which  enables  him  to  preserve  a 
unity  of  design  throughout,  and  thus  to  give  an  expression 
of  grace  and  beauty  to  the  whole  by  the  harmonious  blend- 
ing of  its  parts.  The  point  I  wish  especially  to  impress 
upon  the  reader  is  that  this  primary  work  is  what  really 
confers  character  upon  the  place.  Decorations  of  what- 
ever kind  may  be  subsequently  added,  and  if  tastefully 
and  appropriately  introduced,  may  tend  to  heighten  the 
effect,  or  increase  the  attractive  interest  which  pertains  to 
the  whole,  but  in  no  case  can  they  render  a  place  beautiful 
which  is  not  intrinsically  so,  or  atone  for  awkwardness, 
inconvenience  or  incongruity  in  the  general  arrangement, 
and  moreover  it  is  by  no  means  impossible  that  elaborate 
ornamentation  should  destroy  or  seriously  detract  from 
the  general  expression  otherwise  conveyed,  as  for  instance 
by  conferring  an  air  of  ostentatious  display  upon  an  other- 


20 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


wise  pleasant  and  attractive  home,  or  detracting  from  the 
dignity  of  an  imposing  situation,  by  diverting  the  atten- 
tion from  the  sublime  or  beautiful  natural  features,  which 
are  sufficient  in  themselves  to  excite  admiration  and 
occupy  the  attention. 

In  selecting  the  position  for  a  house,  which  is  to 
become  a  family  homestead,  on  an  estate  comprising  the 
usual  variety  of  rural  scenery,  in  the  form  of  hills,  valleys, 
wood,  water,  etc.,  either  within  or  immediately  adjacent 
to  its  own  limits,  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  imme- 
diate wants  of  its  first  occupants  comprise  but  a  single 
link  in  the  chain  of  circumstances,  which  should  be  taken 
into  consideration  before  making  the  final  decision.  The 
building  about  to  be  erected  may  outlast  several  genera- 
tions of  occupants,  and  it  would  prove  a  source  of  con- 
stant annoyance  to  discover,  when  too  late,  that  an  error 
had  been  made  in  its  position,  involving  disagreeable  con- 
sequences which  might  have  been  avoided,  or  failing  to 
secure  advantages  which  another  situation  would  have 
afforded. 

Such  mistakes  are  very  common,  and  a  consideration 
of  some  of  the  questions  involved  will  show  that  the 
probability  of  their  occurrence  is  very  great. 

If  any  considerable  elevation,  commanding  an  extended 
prospect,  is  included  in  the  area,  the  first  impulse  of  an 
inexperienced  person  will  be  to  select  the  summit  as  the 
most  desirable  site  for  the  residence.  The  importance  of 
securing  such  a  view  from  the  windows,  as  conducive  to 
the  happiness  of  the  daily  life  of  the  occupants  is  apt  to 
be  over-rated  in  the  enthusiasm  excited  by  its  first  con- 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


21 


templation.  Most  people  become  indifferent  to  it,  when 
its  novelty  is  destroyed  by  daily  habit,  whereas  the 
annoyances  attending  the  access  to  an  elevated  position, 
which  at  first  seemed  a  cheap  price  for  the  treasure  to  be 
secured,  are  never  diminished  by  repetition.  The  neces- 
sity of  climbing  the  hill  at  every  return  to  the  house,  in 
all  conditions  of  weather,  through  rain  and  sleet,  and  icy 
winds  and  broiling  sun ;  whatever  the  condition  of  roads, 
mud  or  dust,  ice  or  slush;  under  all  circumstances  of 
health  and  temper;  suffering  with  a  headache  which  makes 
life  a  burden ;  harassed  with  petty  vexations,  or  hurried  by 
unexpected  necessities  which  no  man  escapes,  renders  it 
after  a  time  so  serious  an  evil  that  only  the  utter  hopeless- 
ness of  relief  constrains  the  sufferers  to  submit  in  silence. 

Better  by  far  to  select  a  less  commanding  position  for 
the  house,  reserving  the  summit  as  an  objective  point  for 
an  evening  stroll,  when  weather  and  disposition  are  favor- 
able, under  which  circumstances  the  extended  view  will 
never  fail  to  be  appreciated  and  enjoyed.  As  a  matter 
of  taste  also  in  securing  the  most  agreeable  aspect  of  the 
place  from  points  of  approach,  the  summit  of  a  hill  should 
be  avoided  as  a  building  site,  since  a  house  thus  situated 
has  always  a  bleak,  exposed  look,  especially  if  seen  in 
whole  or  partial  relief  against  the  sky,  whereas  if  the  land 
rises  in  the  rear  of  the  house,  the  summit  crowned  with 
wood,  and  in  front  assumes  the  form  of  a  gently  sloping 
lawn,  with  groups  of  trees  tastefully  arranged  to  prevent 
the  appearance  of  bareness,  the  effect  will  be  to  give  a 
home-like  and  attractive  expression,  which  every  person 
of  good  taste  will  recognize  with  pleasure. 


22  LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


It  is  moreover  not  unfrequently  the  case  that  more 
attractive  though  less  expansive  views  can  be  obtained 
from  the  lower  point,  by  arranging  plantations  of  trees  or 
shrubbery  so  as  to  conceal  offensive  objects,  and  direct 
the  eye  to  graceful  or  picturesque  bits  of  landscape  which 
are  varied  as  the  position  is  changed,  and  thus  rendered 
more  interesting  than  when  seen  in  the  single  prospect 
from  the  summit  which  embraces  them  all. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  other  and  more  serious  objec- 
tions may  be  urged  against  the  supposed  site  than  have 
yet  been  stated.  The  importance  of  reserving  abundant 
room  in  the  rear  of  the  house  for  domestic  convenience 
and  pleasure,  secluded  from  public  sight,  can  hardly  be 
over-estimated  as  an  element  of  daily  comfort,  and  if  in 
order  to  secure  the  fine  view,  the  house  is  placed  upon 
the  apex  of  a  hill, —  the  ground  sloping  to  the  road  in 
front  so  as  to  be  fully  exposed  to  view,  and  falling  off  in 
the  rear  also,  so  rapidly  as  to  leave  no  room  for  domestic 
offices,  wood  yard,  laundry  yard,  play  ground,  garden,  etc., 
shut  out  from  public  gaze  and  amply  large  for  all  the 
demands  of  the  family  —  the  continual  sense  of  discom- 
fort and  inconvenience  resulting  from  the  want  will  far 
outbalance  the  advantages  gained.  The  position  of  the 
stable,  both  as  regards  its  own  requirements  and  in  refer- 
ence to  the  house,  is  a  matter  of  essential  importance. 
It  should  be  convenient  of  access,  yet  not  so  near  as  to 
be  in  any  way  offensive;  not  prominently  conspicuous, 
though  I  do  not  consider  it  an  objectionable  feature  if 
unobtrusive,  and  it  is  all  important  that  it  should  be 
capable  of  approach  by  a  farm  lane,  instead  of  being 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


23 


solely  accessible  by  the  carriage  drive  past  the  front  door. 
Advantage  may  often  be  taken  of  a  side  hill  to  economize 
construction  by  means  of  a  basement  in  which  the  cow 
stalls  may  be  constructed,  with  a  large  sliding  door  open- 
ing on  the  barn  yard  at  a  lower  level  than  the  stable  and 
carriage  house,  and  thus  out  of  sight  from  the  house. 
Much  of  the  essential  interest  and  pleasure  derivable 
from  whatever  attractions  the  place  may  possess,  is 
dependent  upon  so  placing  the  house  that  the  windows 
of  the  rooms  which  will  be  most  occupied  may  command 
the  most  desirable  views,  and  to  this  end  it  is  of  vital 
importance  that  the  architect  and  the  landscape  gar- 
dener should  act  in  concert,  otherwise  the  portions  of  the 
grounds  which  possess  the  best  capacity  of  tasteful 
development  may  be  overlooked  by  the  kitchen  windows, 
while  the  parlors  may  command  only  a  cheerless  outlook 
upon  the  road.  Architects  would  no  doubt  be  more 
ready  to  join  in  consultation  with  landscape  gardeners,  if 
the  latter  were  as  a  class  more  conscious  of  the  duties 
and  responsibilities  of  their  profession,  and  better  able  to 
fulfil  them.  The  question  of  an  easy  and  graceful 
entrance  drive  by  which  the  house  may  be  approached 
from  the  road,  and  easy  access  to  the  stable  must  of 
course  be  taken  into  consideration  in  determining  their 
relative  positions,  and  also  the  subdivision  of  the  land 
into  useful  and  ornamental  departments,  of  garden, 
orchard,  lawn,  wood,  etc.  And,  finally,  the  arrangement 
of  the  plantations  of  trees  and  shrubbery  requires  the 
exercise  of  a  degree  of  skill  and  taste  which  are  never 
attained  without  study  and  experience.    It  is  generally  at 


24 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


this  stage  that  the  proprietor  becomes  conscious  of  his 
own  deficiency  and  seeks  the  aid  of  a  landscape  gardener. 

Tree  planting  is  the  first  positive  step  in  the  work  of 
redemption  from  the  cheerless  condition  to  which  the 
place  has  been  reduced,  and  if  the  owner  has  attained  a 
conception  of  the  possibility  of  a  more  graceful  arrange- 
ment than  that  of  formal  rows,  and  attempts  the  arrange- 
ment of  groups  and  irregular  belts,  he  speedily  becomes 
aware  that  he  is  going  beyond  his  depth,  and  is  fain  to  call 
for  aid.  He  cannot  satisfy  himself  in  regard  to  their  posi- 
tions, and  is  utterly  at  a  loss  when  he  tries  to  imagine 
what  will  be  the  effect  when  they  have  attained  their  full 
size.  Of  their  relative  size,  form  and  colour  of  foliage  he 
has  probably  no  idea,  and  if  he  attempts  to  stake  out  the 
ground  for  the  planting  of  a  group,  it  is  probable  that  he 
will  set  the  stakes  within  five  or  six  feet  of  each  other, 
and  label  them  with  the  names  of  such  trees  as  he  has 
bought  of  a  travelling  agent,  who  has  assured  him  of  their 
desirable  characteristics.  He  soon  becomes  sensible  of  a 
perverse  tendency  of  the  stakes,  in. spite  of  every  effort  on 
his  part,  to  assume  a  formal  character  in  their  relative 
positions,  which  is  very  inexplicable.  His  determination 
was  to  stick  them  in  as  irregularly  as  possible,  and  he 
finds  on  looking  them  over  that  he  can  see  squares,  and 
triangles,  and  straight  rows  and  quincunx  figures  contin- 
ually repeated.  And  perhaps  in  the  midst  of  his  work  he 
happens  to  cast  his  eyes  into  an  adjoining  meadow 
upon  an  elm  which  has  been  growing  in  undisturbed 
beauty  for  a  century,  and  the  thought  flashes  across  his 
mind  that  he  has  been  for  an  hour  labelling  stakes  and 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


25 


sticking  them  in  the  ground  as  guides  for  the  planting  of 
elms,  maples,  ash  trees,  pines,  hemlocks,  and  cedars,  and 
there  before  him  is  a  single  elm  covering  in  the  spread 
of  its  branches  a  larger  space  than  he  has  devoted  to  the 
whole  group.  The  truth  flashes  upon  him  that  he  is 
working  at  a  trade  at  which  he  has  never  served  an 
apprenticeship,  and  he  speedily  arrives  at  the  conclusion 
that  it  will  be  safer  and  cheaper  to  seek  the  aid  of  one 
who  has  learned  the  business. 

Let  me  not  be  understood  to  say  that  there  are  not 
frequent  instances  of  the  exercise  of  the  highest  degree  of 
skill  and  taste  as  evinced  in  the  results  of  the  work  Of 
amateurs  who  have  had  no  professional  training.  To 
one  such  I  am  indebted  for  some  of  the  most  valuable 
lessons  I  have  ever  learned,  but  it  is  worthy  of  note  that 
such  men  are  ever  the  readiest  to  seek  the  aid  of  compe- 
tent professional  authorities,  while  inexperienced  men 
will  proceed  without  hesitation  and  commit  the  grossest 
blunders  with  a  blind  confidence  that  nobody  can  instruct 
them.  On  the  other  hand  it  cannot  be  denied  that  many 
of  the  so-called  landscape  gardeners  are  men  whose  prac- 
tical knowledge  is  not  governed  by  an  innate  taste,  and 
whose  pedantry  and  arrogance  is  the  result  of  their  ignor- 
ance on  all  other  subjects.  A  little  experience  with  one 
of  this  class  is  apt  to  prove  so  offensive  that  a  man 
possessed  of  ordinary  sensibility  becomes  disgusted,  and 
prefers  falling  back  on  his  own  common  sense,  and  work- 
ing out  the  problem  for  himself  with  such  aid  as  he  may 
incidentally  secure. 

It  will,  I  trust,  be  evident  that  this  primary  work  of 


26 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


arrangement  which  I  have  been  describing  is  what  really 
constitutes  the  "  landscape  architecture  "  of  the  place,  to 
which  all  subsequent  decoration  is  subordinate,  and  the 
skill  and  judgment  of  the  artist  are  shown  in  the  tasteful 
adaptation  of  the  natural  features  to  the  necessities  of  the 
case,  and  the  attainment  of  the  most  graceful  develop- 
ment of  whatever  attractive  features  the  place  may- 
possess,  without  any  sacrifice  of  the  obvious  demands  of 
convenience.  If  the  reader  will  consider  the  endless 
variety  of  combinations  of  natural  features  upon  which 
it  is  the  artist's  province  to  operate,  and  the  equally 
varied  tastes  and  necessities  of  humanity  which  are  to  be 
provided  for,  he  may  perhaps  obtain  a  realizing  sense  of 
the  demands  which  are  made  upon  his  taste  and 
ingenuity. 

But  apart  from  all  considerations  of  the  immediate 
wants  of  the  proprietor  is  the  necessity  of  reference  to 
future  possibilities. 

This  question  is  one  of  special  importance  in  the  West 
and  particularly  in  the  vicinity  of  growing  towns,  where 
land  is  rapidly  increasing  in  value.  It  often  happens  in 
a  very  few  years  that  such  a  demand  for  building  sites 
may  arise  as  will  make  it  desirable  to  divide  the  estate 
and  set  off  a  portion  for  the  purpose  of  selling  it  in  lots. 
Even  if  the  original  proprietor  does  not  wish  to  do  so,  it 
may  become  imperatively  necessary  for  his  children  or 
successors,  and  special  reference  should  be  had  to  such 
possibility  in  making  the  primary  arrangement,  and  the 
buildings  and  different  departments  so  disposed  that  those 
portions  which  it  would  be  most  desirable  to  set  off  may 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


27 


be  separated  from  the  rest  by  opening  a  new  road  or 
otherwise,  without  disturbing  the  unity  of  the  original 
place,  or  affecting  it  disagreeably,  except  by  reducing  its 
area.  The  importance  of  this  will  be  readily  apparent, 
and  the  necessity  of  exercising  judgment  and  ingenuity 
in  view  of  it,  hardly  less  so.  On  the  other  hand,  and 
almost  of  equal  importance,  is  the  possibility  of  external 
changes  which  may  affect  the  value  of  the  place  or  the 
comfort  of  its  occupants,  as,  the  probability  of  new  roads 
being  opened  in  its  vicinity,  or  of  neighboring  tracts 
being  made  use  of  for  purposes  which  may  affect  it  favor- 
ably or  otherwise.  It  is  obvious  that  such  questions 
possess  an  importance  in  a  new  and  rapidly  growing 
country  which  does  not  pertain  to  them  .in  an  older 
region,  and  every  design  for  the  arrangement  of  any  con- 
siderable area  should  have  reference  to  them. 


28  LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


CHAPTER  III. 

LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE  APPLIED  TO  THE  ARRANGE- 
MENT    OF     TOWNS.  DUTIES    AND  RESPONSIBILITIES 

INCIDENT  TO  THE  WORK.  RECTANGULAR  ARRANGE- 
MENT    OBJECTIONABLE     EVEN     ON     LEVEL  SITES.  

ILLUSTRATED  BY  REFERENCE   TO  CHICAGO. 

F  I  have  succeeded  in  showing  that  even  in  the 
arrangement  of  a  private  estate  comprising  only 
a  few  acres,  there  is  abundant  room  for  the  exer- 
cise of  practical  knowledge  and  skill  in  the  application  of 
the  principles  of  landscape  architecture,  no  argument 
will  be  needed  to  prove  that  very  much  more  intricate 
and  elaborate  problems  must  present  themselves  when 
the  area  is  enlarged,  and  the  tastes,  interests  and  future 
wants  of  great  multitudes  are  to  be  provided  for  in  the 
laying  out  of  a  town  or  city. 

The  existence  of  sanitary,  economic  and  esthetic  laws 
which  should  govern  the  arrangement  of  cities,  is  abun- 
dantly proved  by  the  penalties  which  have  so  often  been 
paid  for  their  transgression.  We  cannot  plead  ignorance 
in  excuse  for  their  violation,  and  upon  us  more  than  any 
pre-existing  nation  devolves  the  duty  of  their  further 
development  and  application. 

The  opening  of  the  lines  of  railroad  across  the  conti- 
nent has  developed  so  much  that  was  unexpected  in  the 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


29 


resources  and  capacities  of  the  regions  they  have  pene- 
trated ;  has  dispelled  so  many  erroneous  ideas  in  regard 
to  their  susceptibility  of  improvement  for  the  purposes  of 
civilized  habitation,  and  has  so  facilitated  the  means  of 
adapting  them  to  such  purposes,  that  it  has  become  a 
task  of  almost  equal  difficulty  to  obtain  a  realizing  sense 
of  the  opportunities  which  are  dawning  upon  us,  or  of  the 
responsibilities  they  involve. 

The  vast  regions  yet  lying  undisturbed  between  the 
Mississippi  and  the  Pacific  comprise  such  resources  of 
wealth  and  variety  of  sublime  and  picturesque  features 
of  natural  scenery  as  can  be  seen  on  no  other  portion  of 
the  earth's  surface,  that  is  accessible  to  civilization.  This 
is  the  raw  material  which  is  placed  in  our  hands  to  be 
moulded  into  shape  for  the  habitations  of  a  nation,  and 
such  as  we  create,  it  must  essentially  remain  for  all  future 
time.  All  coming  generations  are  to  inhabit  the  cities 
and  towns,  and  go  to  their  daily  labors  in  the  streets,  and 
seek  recreation  in  the  parks  and  pleasure  grounds,  and 
be  laid  to  rest  in  the  cemeteries,  the  foundations  of  which 
we  are  laying  or  preparing  to  lay,  and  whose  essential 
features  of  arrangement  are  immutable  from  the  time 
they  are  first  occupied. 

It  may  not  at  first  sight  appear  that  the  duties  and 
responsibilities  devolving  upon  us  are  materially  different 
from  those  which  have  attached  to  the  similar  work  in 
which  our  fathers  have  been  engaged  throughout  our 
national  existence.  A  little  reflection,  however,  will  show 
that  the  march  of  modern  improvement  has  so  altered 
the  relative  proportion  of  means  to  ends,  that  the  appli- 


3° 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


cation  of  the  creative  powers  we  now  possess  to  the 
development  of  a  new  country,  can  no  more  be  governed 
by  the  record  of  the  past  than  the  destructive  agencies  of 
modern  warfare  can  be  directed  by  the  military  tactics  of 
a  past  age. 

Before  the  introduction  of  railroads  the  settlement  of 
the  West  was  by  a  gradual  process  of  accretion,  a  van- 
guard of  hardy  pioneers  keeping  ever  in  advance,  endur- 
ing hardships  and  privations  which  could  only  be  borne 
by  men  unaccustomed  to  the  ordinary  comforts  of  civili- 
zation. The  better  classes  who  followed  were  necessarily 
governed  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  in  whatever  further 
improvements  they  attempted,  by  the  works  of  their  pred- 
ecessors, and  nothing  approaching  to  scientific  or  artistic 
designs  of  arrangement  of  extended  areas,  based  upon 
wise  forethought  of  future  necessities,  was  attempted. 
The  Government  system  of  surveys  of  public  lands 
formed  the  only  basis  of  division,  the  only  guide  in  laying 
out  county  roads,  or  the  streets  of  proposed  towns  ;  and 
if  the  towns  grew  into  cities  it  was  simply  by  the  indefi- 
nite extension  of  the  straight  streets,  running  north,  south, 
east  or  west,  without  regard  to  topographical  features,  or 
facilities  of  grading  or  drainage,  and  still  less  of  any  con- 
siderations of  taste  or  convenience,  which  would  have 
suggested  a  different  arrangement.  Every  Western  trav- 
eler is  familiar  with  the  monotonous  character  of  the 
towns  resulting  from  the  endless  repetition  of  the  dreary 
uniformity  of  rectangles-  which  they  present ;  yet  the 
custom  is  so  universal  and  offers  such  advantages  in  sim- 
plifying and  facilitating  descriptions  and  transfers  of  real 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


31 


estate,  that  any  attempt  at  the  introduction  of  a  different 
system  encounters  at  once  a  strong  feeling  of  popular 
prejudice. 

A  new  era  in  the  process  of  the  redemption  and  settle- 
ment of  the  wild  country  has  now  commenced,  and  a  vast 
extent  of  new  territory  is  annually  opening  to  its  advanc- 
ing waves.  Wherever  a  railroad  is  opened,  all  the  labor- 
saving  machinery  and  all  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of 
civilization  are  at  once  introduced,  and  the  newest  settle- 
ments are  equipped  from  the  outset  with  all  the  physical 
necessities  of  civilized  life. 

The  Eastern  man  who  made  the  journey  to  the  Missis- 
sippi thirty  years  ago  found  himself,  after  ten  days  or  a 
fortnight's  weary  travelling  by  canal  boat,  stage  and 
steamer,  among  a  people  differing  in  dress,  habits  and 
idiom,  from  those  he  had  left;  and  if  he  departed  from 
the  great  routes  of  travel  and  penetrated  the  interior  of 
any  of  the  Western  States,  he  was  forced  to  submit  to 
inconvenience  and  discomfort  for  want  of  what  he  had 
always  been  accustomed  to  consider  the  simplest  neces- 
sities of  life,  but  whose  names  and  uses  were  alike 
unknown  to  the  majority  of  the  primitive  backwoodsmen 
who  comprised  the  rural  population. 

Now  the  passage  to  the  Pacific  may  be  made  in  less 
time  than  was  then  required  to  reach  the  Mississippi,  and 
without  the  surrender  of  any  of  the  luxuries  which  have 
come  to  be  regarded  as  necessities  of  modern  travel,  and 
which  in  spite  of  the  tendency  to  vulgar  display  in  the 
upholstering  of  hotels  and  public  conveyances,  have  done 
good  service  in  cultivating  and  refining  the  manners  and 


32 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


tastes  of  a  large  class,  whose  only  knowledge  of  them  is 
derived  from  such  sources.  The  traveler  may  now  look 
in  vain  for  the  distinctive  evidences  of  a  primitive  condi- 
tion of  social  life.  He  will  scarcely  find  even  a  log  house, 
and  nothing  in  the  dress  or  appearance  of  the  inhabitants 
or  the  furnishing  of  their  dwellings  will  strike  him  as 
essentially  different  from  what  he  has  been  accustomed 
to  in  the  older  settlements.  Towns  no  longer  grow  up 
imperceptibly  and  apparently  by  accident,  but  are  created 
as  it  were  in  a  day,  the  population  and  material  being 
furnished  to  order  and  delivered  by  rail  at  any  given 
point,  where  they  fall  into  place  and  assume  their  respec- 
tive duties  with  almost  the  precision  of  military  organ- 
ization. 

A  striking  illustration  of  the  rapid  conversion  of  the 
wilderness  to  an  advanced  condition  of  cultivation  was 
exhibited  at  the  last  meeting  of  the  National  Pomological 
Society.  It  seems  but  yesterday  that  the  convention  was 
held  in  New  York,  at  which  that  society  was  first  estab- 
lished, and  many  of  those  who  took  part  on  that  occasion 
are  still  numbered  among  its  active  members.  At  that 
time  Nebraska  was  only  thought  of  as  a  part  of  the  great 
American  desert,  which  was  supposed  to  be  incapable  of 
cultivation,  and  within  whose  limits  it  was  hardly  safe 
for  civilized  men  to  enter  except  in  armed  caravans  or 
under  military  protection;  yet  at  the  last  meeting  of  the 
Pomological  Society  the  prize  for  the  largest  and  finest 
collection  of  fruit  was  awarded  to  Nebraska ! 

The  change  has  been  so  rapid  and  so  great  that  it 
cannot  be  fully  realized  except  by  those  who  can  recall 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


33 


the  various  stages  of  progress  from  its  condition  of  savage 
dreariness  to  that  of  smiling  culture. 

But  in  the  arrangement  of  towns  no  advance  has  been 
~  Tttade  from  the  original  rectangular  fashion,  which  even 
when  the  site  is  level,  is  on  many  accounts  objectionable 
while  with  every  departure  from  an  even  surface,  the 
advantages  become  apparent  of  adapting  the  arrangement 
of  the  streets  to  its  inequalities. 

Every  one  who  is  familiar  with  the  river  towns  of  the 
West  will  recall  innumerable  instances  of  enormously 
expensive  works  in  cutting  down  hillsides  and  building 
up  embankments  ;  of  the  almost  total  destruction  of  valu- 
able building  sites  ;  in  one  place  by  their  being  left  in  an 
inaccessible  position  on  the  top  of  a  precipice  ;  in  another 
by  being  exposed  to  all  the  drainage  of  a  street  which  is 
far  above  them,  while  all  the  naturally  beautiful  or  pic- 
turesque features  of  the  place  have  been  destroyed  or 
rendered  hideous  in  the  effort  to  make  them  conform  to 
a  rectangular  system,  as  if  the  human  intellect  were  as 
powerless  to  adapt  itself  to  changing  circumstances  as  the 
instinct  of  insects,  whose  cells  are  constructed  on  an 
unvarying  pattern. 

All  these  evil  results  might  be  obviated  by  due  fore- 
thought and  the  exercise  of  judgment  and  taste  in  adapt- 
ing the  arrangement  to  the  site ;  and  now  that  we  have 
reached  the  point  when  vast  regions  may  be  controlled 
by  companies  or  individuals,  and^  the  sites  and  plans  of 
towns  can  be  selected  and  pre-orcfained,  it  is  unworthy  of 
the  progress  of  the  age  in  science  and  art  that  no  advance 
should  be  made  in  a  matter  of  such  importance. 


34 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


If  a  town  is  to  be  laid  out  on  any  given  tract  of  land, 
the  first  question  in  the  mind  of  a  landscape  architect 
should  be  :  How  can  the  area  be  divided  so  as  to  secure 
the  best  disposition  of  the  different  departments  whose 
necessities  can  be  forseen  and  provided  for  ? 

How  can  the  streets  be  best  adapted  to  the  natural 
shape  of  the  ground,  so  as  to  economize  cost  of  construc- 
tion, and  attain  ease  of  grade  and  facility  of  drainage,  by 
taking  advantage  of  the  opportunities  offered  by  nature 
to  save  expense  of  cutting  and  filling,  while  preserving 
the  most  desirable  building  sites  in  the  best  positions 
relative  to  the  roads  ? 

How  can  any  naturally  attractive  features,  such  as  a 
river,  a  lake  or  a  mountain,  near  or  distant,  be  made  to 
minister  to  the  beautiful  or  picturesque  character  of  the 
place,  by  adapting  the  arrangement  to  the  development 
of  their  most  attractive  aspects? 

Every  one  can  see  in  the  mere  statement  of  these  ques- 
tions, (which  are  but  samples  of  many  which  will  readily 
suggest  themselves),  that  the  answers  must  involve  possi- 
bilities of  vital  moment  in  a  sanitary,  economic  and 
esthetic  sense,  and  although  the  answers  may  be  only 
approximately  and  conjecturally  correct,  it  by  no  means 
follows  that  there  is  no  room  for  the  exercise  of  judgment. 
To  pretend  that  their  conditions  can  be  best  filled  by  an 
invariable  adherence  to  the  rectangular  system,  is  as  ab- 
surd as  would  be  the  assertion  that  the  convenience  and 
economy  and  comfort  of  every  family  would  be  best 
secured  by  living  in  a  square  house,  with  square  rooms, 
of  a  uniform  size.    The  rectangular  system  has  this  in  its 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


35 


favor,  that  the  first  cost  of  laying  out  is  less  than  that  of 
a  more  elaborate  achitectural  arrangement,  because  any 
surveyor  can  run  out  the  lines,  and  morever,  there  is  no 
way  in  which  so  many  lots  can  be  got  out  of  a  given  area. 
By  a  parity  of  reasoning,  square  houses  would  cost  less 
than  more  elaborate  buildings,  because  any  carpenter  can 
build  them,  and  they  will  cut  up  into  rooms  more 
economically  than  an  irregular  building.  Yet  people  do 
not  hesitate  to  pay  large  prices  for  elaborate  architectural 
designs  for  buildings,  which  are  to  last  at  most  for  a  few 
generations,  while  they  suffer  a  town,  which  is  to  last 
forever,  to  grow  up  without  an  effort  at  adaptation  to 
present  circumstances  or  future  necessities,  while  it  is 
obvious  in  many  cases  that  present  economy  involves 
enormous  and  irremediable  future  outlay  or  loss.  The 
instances  in  which  irreparable  and  inestimable  evils  have 
resulted  from  the  violation  of  such  principles  of  landscape 
architecture,  as  are  indicated  by  the  above  questions, 
may  be  found  in  almost  every  city  in  the  country,  and 
the  almost  superhuman  efforts  which  some  of  .  them 
are  making  to  obtain  relief,  afford  sufficient  evidence 
of  the  importance  of  timely  exercise  of  care  for  their 
prevention. 

It  may  not  at  first  appear  that  any  very  serious  objec- 
tion can  be  urged  against  the  rectangular  system  when 
the  site  is  a  perfectly  level  one,  but  the  consideration  of 
a  case  in  point,  whose  exceptions  may  serve  as  illustra- 
tions of  the  truth  of  the  general  rule,  will  prove  that  it 
involves  the  sacrifice  of  advantages  whose  value  can 
hardly  be  estimated. 


36 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


Chicago  is  situated  on  a  vast  plain  extending  in  every 
direction  for  many  miles  beyond  the  city  limits. 

Probably  no  city  ever  had  such  an  opportunity  as  hers 
to  secure  every  possible  advantage  which  the  situation 
admits,  by  the  exercise  of  judicious  forethought  in  the 
preparation  of  a  design  adapted  to  the  necessities  which 
were  certain  to  arise.  Other  cities  have  grown  up  by 
gradual  accretion  in  a  long  series  of  years,  but  Chicago 
has  grown  from  a  mere  village  to  an  immense  city  in  the 
course  of  a  single  generation,  and  many  of  her  active  and 
energetic  citizens  of  to-day  have  shot  wild  game  where 
now  are  located  some  of  her  busiest  thoroughfares.  Her 
founders  were  always  sanguine  of  -  her  future  destiny,  and 
from  an  early  day  declared  their  conviction  that  she 
would  become  one  of  leacling  commercial  cities  of  the 
country.  They  had  trie  history  and  example  of  all  the 
cities  of  all  the  world  to  teach  them  the  necessities,  and 
warn  them  of  the  dangers  which  must  arise,  and  which 
could  never  be  rectified  if  riot  foreseen  and  provided  for 
in  the  original  design.  The-  site  was  a  dead  level,  offer- 
ing no  natural  features  to  affect  the  design,  except  the 
lake  and  the  river,  the  former  comprising  the  only  object 
worthy  of  consideration  for  esthetic  effect,  while  the  latter 
furnished  a  secure  harbor  for  lake  craft,  and  must  of 
course  always  be  intimately  connected  with  the  business 
interests  of  the  city. 

No  evidence  of  special  reference  to  these,  features 
appears  in  the  original  plan,  and  the  only  important  pro- 
vision which  indicates  the  faith  of  the  founders  in  the 
future  greatness  of  the  city,  is  in  the  breadth  of  the 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


37 


streets,  which  is  generally  from  sixty-six  to  eighty  feet, — 
a  most  important  provision  certainly,  and  one  which  is  so 
often  neglected,  that  it  reflects  credit  upon  the  judgment 
of  those  who  exercised  such  forethought. 

Within  the  present  city  limits  are  comprised  about 
eight  hundred  miles  of  streets,  and  with  the  exception  of 
ten  or  twelve  whose  course  is  diagonal  to  that  of  the 
general  system,  and  only  one  of  which  comes  within  a 
mile  of  the  central  business  portion  of  the  city,  all  the 
streets  run  due  north  and  south  and  east  and  west.  The 
town  having  originally  started  on  these  lines,  the  great 
city  has  grown  up  by  simple  projections  of  the  same,  the 
diagonals  being  old  country  roads  whose  convenience  was 
too  well  established  to  admit  of  their  removal.  Before 
going  farther,  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  arranging  of 
the  streets  according  to  the  cardinal  points  involves  a 
sanitary  objection  of  no  mean  import.  No  fact  is  better 
established  than  the  necessity  of  sunlight  to  the  highest 
degree  of  animal  health,  and  no  constitution  can  long 
endure,  without  ill  effect,  the  habitual  daily  privation  of 
its  health  giving  power.  City  houses  at  best  can  rarely 
be  so  well  provided  for  in  this  respect  as  those  which 
stand  alone,  as  is  generally  the  case  in  the  country,  and 
it  is  all  the  more  important  that  every  facility  should  be 
afforded  to  secure  as  much  as  possible  of  its  genial  influ- 
ence. But  every  house  on  the  south  side  of  a  street 
running  east  and  west  must  have  its  front  rooms,- which 
are  generally  its  living  rooms,  entirely  secluded  from  the 
sun  during  the  Winter,  and  for  most  of  the  day  during 
the  Rummer.    This  fact,  coupled  with  that  of  the  indoor 


38 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


life  of  American,  and  particularly  Western,  women,  is 
enough  to  account  for  a  very  large  share  of  the  nervous 
debility  which  so  generally  prevails.  If  the  rectangular 
system  must  be  adhered  to  in  city  arrangement,  it  would 
be  far  better  that  the  lines  of  streets  should  be  northwest 
and  southeast,  and  the  cross  streets  at  right  angles  with 
them,  than  as  now  disposed. 

The  present  city  limits  embrace  an  area  eight  miles  in 
length  by  five  in  breadth,  and  with  the  exception  of  the 
few  diagonal  streets  above  alluded  to,  the  city  is  simply  a 
vast  collection  of  square  blocks  of  buildings,  divided  by 
straight  streets,  whose  weary  lengths  become  fearfully 
monotonous  to  one  who  is  under  frequent  necessity  of 
traversing  them. 

Here  and  there  at  wide  distances  from  each  other 
single  squares  have  been  reserved  for  public  use,  and  in 
one  or  two  of  these  squares  an  elaborate  effort  at  decora- 
tion has  been  made  by  means  of  what  is  commonly 
understood  to  be  landscape  gardening.  Mountain  ranges 
are  introduced  which  are  overlooked  from  the  chamber 
windows  of  the  surrounding  houses ;  lakes  of  correspond- 
ing size  are  created  apparently  to  afford  an  excuse  for  the 
construction  of  rustic  bridges,  which  are  conspicuous  at  a 
greater  distance  than  either  mountains  or  lakes.  A  light- 
house three  feet  high,  on  a  rocky  promontory  the  size  of  a 
dining  room  table,  serves  to  warn  the  ducks  and  geese  of 
hidden  dangers  of  navigation,  and  this  baby-house  orna- 
mentation is  tolerated  in  a  great  city  which  aspires  to  an 
artistic  reputation ;  the  crowds  which  throng  these  places 
in  pleasant  weather  give  evidence  alike  of  the  popular 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


39 


longing  for  relief  from  the  din  and  turmoil  of  the  streets, 
and  of  the  facility  with  which  they  might  be  made  avail- 
able for  purposes  of  instruction  by  a  truly  artistic  use  of 
objects  of  natural  beauty  and  interest. 

A  little  area  in  the  south  part  of  the  city,  known  as 
Ellis  Park,  is  a  pleasing  exception  to  the  general  rule, 
making  no  such  display  of  absurdities,  and  being  beauti- 
fully kept  and  richly  decorated  with  flowers  tastefully 
arranged  in  masses  set  in  a  velvet  sward.  Few  people, 
except  those  in  the  immediate  vicinity,  are  aware  that  the 
city  is  indebted  for  the  possession  of  this  little  gem  to  the 
enthusiasm  of  an  amateur,  who  furnishes  and  watches 
over  the  flowers  and  provides  for  the  wants  of  the  trees 
and  grass,  and  finds  his  reward  in  the  gratification  of  his 
ruling  passion  and  the  consciousness  of  the  pleasure  he 
confers  on  others. 

The  reservation  of  the  area  now  occupied  by  Lincoln 
Park  was  the  earliest  and  most  judicious  selection  of  land 
for  the  purpose  of  public  recreation,  and  it  will  always 
possess  a  peculiar  and  superior  value  and  interest  from 
the  facts  of  its  vicinity  and  ease  of  access  to  the  business 
portions  of  the  city  and  its  position  on  the  shore  of  the 
lake,  which  is  the  only  natural  feature  of  the  whole  region 
around  Chicago,  which  possesses  any  distinct  characteris- 
tics of  sublimity.  These  are  in  effect  the  same  as  those 
of  the  ocean,  whether  in  the  idea  it  conveys  of  grandeur 
by  its  vast  extent,  of  terrific  power  when  roused  by  storms, 
or  of  living,  sparkling  beauty  in  its  ordinary  condition^ 
when  its  rippling  surface  is  dotted  with  fleets  of  sails  and 
steamers.    The  shores  possess  none  of  the  picturesque 


40 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


features  which  are  essential  to  give  the  full  effect  of  sub- 
limity to  an  ocean  view.  There  are  no  jutting  headlands, 
no  deep  bays,  no  islands,  or  "cold,  grey  stones;"  nothing 
in  fact  but  an  even  line  of  sandy  shore.  The  unbounded 
expanse  of  water,  with  its  ever  changing  hues  and  moods, 
comprises  in  itself  all  that  conveys  the  impression  of 
grandeur,  in  which  it  is  in  no  wise  inferior  to  the  ocean 
except  in  a  single  characteristic,  and  that  is  one  which 
would  only  be  observed  by  a  practised  eye.  The  heavy 
ground  swell  which  is  often  seen  in  the  ocean  when  no 
wind  is  blowing,  and  which  is  the  result  of  storms  so 
distant  that  no  other  evidence  of  them  can  be  discovered 
is  never  seen  in  the  lake.  While  its  storms  last,  its 
breakers  are  as  grand  and  terrific  as  those  of  the  ocean, 
but  the  waves  subside  with  the  winds,  and  we  never  see, 
as  on  the-  ocean,  a  surface  unrippled  by  a  breath  of  air, 
but  heaving  with  a  solemn  series  of  advancing  waves 
wjtfich  break  upon  the  shore  with  a  roar  like  thunder. 

The  lake  is  the  one  single  natural  feature  which 
Chicago  can  command  which  possesses  intrinsic  sublim- 
ity and  unceasing  interest.  In  arranging  a  park  upon  its 
borders,  therefore,  it  should  be  the  objective  point  of 
attractive  interest,  the  development  and  exhibition  of 
which  it  should  be  the  study  of  the  artist  to  secure  under 
such  variety  of  conditions  as  would  tacitly  acknowledge  its 
supremacy.  The  shaping  of  the  ground  and  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  trees  should  have  reference  to  this  end,  and 
the  drives  and  walks  should  be  so  arranged  as  to  open 
views  of  the  lake  from  different  points,  giving  continual 
variety  by  the  different  framing  of  hills  or  foliage  through 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


41 


which  it  is  seen,  but  making  it  always  the  essential  object 
of  the  picture.  Instead  of  this,  the  park  is  cut  off  from 
the  lake  by  a  low  range  of  sandhills  which  must  be 
crossed  before  it  can  be  seen.  No^art  whatever  has  been 
applied  to  give  a  picturesque  effect  by  the  use  of  such 
accessories  as  would  excite  emotions  in  keeping  with  the 
grandeur  or  the  beauty  of  the  scene.  The  visitor  crosses 
the  hill  and  the  blank  sheet  of  water  lies  before  him  in 
its  full  extent,  and  all  at  once.  No  previous  glimpses  of 
portions  of  it,  seen  through  distant  openings  between  the 
hills  or  under  an  archway  of  overhanging  foliage,  awakens 
curiosity  and  excites  the  imagination  by  the  intricacy  and 
variety  thus  afforded  ;  and  indeed,  so  far  as  any  pleasure 
is  derivable  from  the  view  of  the  lake,  the  park  offers  no 
advantages  over  the  wharves  of  the  city.  Yet  with  this 
magnificent  sheet  of  water  at  hand  to  furnish  the  key 
note  of  whatever  improvements  might  be  attempted  on 
its  shores,  the  prominent  decoration  of  the  park  is  an 
elaborately  artificial  lake  which  seems  to  have  been  con- 
structed for  the  purpose  of  exhibiting  a  further  display  of 
such  childish  toys  as  adorn  the  squares.  More  rustic 
bridges,  a  miniature  castle,  and  a  grotto  of  imitation  stone 
adorned  with  colored  glass,  the  effect  of  which  when 
lighted  up,  as  a  Chicago  paper  gravely  informed  its  read- 
ers, "is  quite  equal  to  that  of  the  celebrated  grotto  in 
Wood's  Museum ! " 

To  return,  however,  to  the  subject  of  rectangular 
arrangement,  from  which  I  have  wandered. 

If  one  has  occasion  to  cross  any  considerable  portion 
of  the  city  on  a  line  diagonal  to  the  uniform  course 


42 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


of  the  streets ;  that  is  :  if  he  wishes  to  go  from  the  north- 
east to  the  southwest  part,  or  from  the  northwest  to  the 
southeast,  he  must  of  necessity  travel  nearly  one  third 
farther  than  would  be  necessary  if  he  could  take  a  straight 
course.  The  relief  afforded  by  the  few  diagonal  streets 
which  exist  is  but  partial,  because  they  are  not  system- 
atically arranged  to  meet  the  necessities  of  the  case,  but 
they  serve  nevertheless  to  prove  how  valuable  such  a 
system  would  be,  for  they  are  always  thronged,  and  the 
demand  for  business  sites  along  their  lines  is  far  beyond 
that  upon  any  of  the  streets  in  their  vicinity.  Except  in 
the  occasional  instances  where  these  avenues  afford  relief, 
the  traveler  whose  course  lies  diagonally  to  the  cardinal 
points,  must  traverse  two  sides  of  the  great  square  which 
lies  between  his  starting  point  and  his  destination.  He 
may  relieve  the  monotony  of  the  straight  streets  by  taking 
a  zigzag  course,  but  he  can  in  no  wise  abate  one  jot  of  the 
distance. 

Think  now  of  the  aggregate  of  unnecessary  miles  which 
must  be  traveled  in  the  daily  traffic  of  a  great  city,  (and  a 
city  which  may  be  termed  a  vast  workshop,  to  which  it  may 
almost  be  said  there  is  "  no  admittance  except  on  busi- 
ness,") the  wear  and  tear  of  the  teams,  and  the  loss  of 
time  which  might  have  been  saved  by  a  judicious  system 
of  diagonal  avenues. 

Chicago  is  now  preparing  to  spend  millions  of  dollars 
in  constructing  a  series  of  parks  which  are  necessarily 
very  distant  from  the  thickly  peopled  districts  of  the  city, 
because  land  in  those  districts  is  too  valuable  to  be 
secured  in  sufficient  quantities  for  such  a  purpose.  The 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


43 


nearest  park  of  the  new  system  is  between  four  and  five 
miles  from  the  Court  House,  and  all  of  them  are  on  the 
open  prairie,  and  as  yet  far  beyond  the  limits  of  any 
semblance  of  city  streets.  They  are  situated  respectively 
north,  west  and  south  of  the  city,  and  are  to  be  connected 
with  each  other  by  a  chain  of  grand  avenues  or  boule- 
vards, having  roadways  on  each  side  of  a  central  mall, 
lined  with  trees  and  adorned  with  fountains  and  other 
objects  of  attractive  interest. 

The  arguments  most  relied  upon  by  the  advocates  of 
parks  have  been  that  they  serve  as  "  lungs  to  the  city," 
by  furnishing  a  magazine  of  pure  air  to  supply  the 
densely  peopled  districts,  while  they  provide  also  a  place 
of  resort  and  recreation  for  the  inhabitants,  where  they 
may  seek  relief  from  the  turmoil  of  the  confined  streets 
in  which  their  lives  are  passed  in  daily  toil  and  refresh 
themselves  with  the  sight  of  trees  and  grass  and  flowers. 
But  how  do  these  conditions  apply  to  the  case  we  are 
considering  ? 

The  streets  of  Chicago  are  all  sufficiently  wide  to 
afford  ample  ventilation.  There  are  no  densely  peo- 
pled, narrow,  winding  streets,  courts  or  lanes ;  and  if 
there  were,  what  relief  would  they  get  from  parks  five 
miles  off? 

Doubtless  in  time  those  parks  will  be  enclosed  within 
the  city  which  will  grow  up  around  and  extend  far 
beyond  them,  but  it  will  be  no  population  of  laboring 
poor  that  will  dwell  in  their  vicinity.  The  palaces  of  the 
rich  will  surround  and  overlook  them,  and  it  will  be  only 
on  an  occasional  holiday  that  the  toiling  denizen  of  the 


44 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


central  business  marts,  can  afford  the  time  or  the  means 
to  go  with  his  family  to  those  distant  gardens.  That  this 
assertion  is  not  a  mere  theory,  is  proved  "By  the  following 
extracts  from  the  report  of  the  Central  Park  Commis- 
sioners for  the  year  1872,  which  has  come  to  hand  since 
the  above  was  written : 

"  That  large  part  of  the  people  of  the  city  to  whom, 
from  the  closer  "quarters  in  which  they  are  most  of  the 
time  confined,  the  Park  would  seem  to  promise  the  great- 
est advantage,  cannot  ordinarily  leave  their  daily  tasks,  at 
the  earliest,  till  after  four  o'clock  ;  nor  their  homes,  which 
in  the  majority  of  cases  are  yet  south  of  Twenty-fifth 
street,  before  five.  A  visit  to  the  Park,  then,  involves 
two  trips  by  street  cars,  which  with  the  walk  to  and  from 
them  will  occupy  more  than  an  hour.  The  street  cars 
on  all  the  lines  approaching  the  Park  are  at  five  o'clock 
overcrowded,  and  most  members  of  a  family  entering  one 
below  Twenty-fifth  street  will  be  unable  to  get  a  seat. 
Under  these  circumstances,  the  pleasure  of  a  short  visit 
to  the  Park,  especially  in  the  latter  part  of  a  hot 
summer's  day,  does  not  often  compensate  for  the  fatigue 
and  discomfort  it  involves,  and  accordingly  it  appears 
that  as  yet  a  majority  of  those  who  frequent  the  Park 
are  people  in  comfortable  circumstances,  and  largely  of 
families,  the  heads  of  which  have  either  retired  from 
business  or  are  able  to  leave  their  business  early  in  the 
day.  Except  on  Sunday,  and  Saturday  afternoons  and 
general  holidays,  the  number  of  residents  of  the  city  who 
come  to  the  Park  in  carriages  is  larger  than  of  those  who 
come  by  street  cars  and  on  foot." 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE,  45 


And  again :  "  It  is  obvious  from  the  great  difference  in 
the  relative  numbers  of  people  who  visit  the  Park 
respectively  in  carriages  and  on '*  foot  on  ordinary  days, 
and  on  Sundays  and  holidays,  that  to  the  great  body  of 
citizens  it  is  yet  too  difficult  of  access  to  be  of  use  except 
on  special  occasions  ;  a  large  majority  of  the  visits  of 
ordinary  short  daily  recreation  being  made  at  present  by 
the  comparatively  small  number,  who  can  afford  to  use 
pleasure  carriages  or  saddle  horses,  or  of  those  from 
whose  houses  a  walk  to  it  is  easy  and  agreeable. " 

That  Chicago  should  even  now  provide  for  future 
certain  wants,  evinces  commendable  wisdom  and  excep- 
tional energy  and  enterprise,  but  if  younger  cities  will 
learn  wisdom  by  her  experience,  and  exercise  an  earlier 
forethought,  they  may  secure  results  which  are  unattain- 
able for  Chicago  by  having  their  parks  and  boulevards  as 
integral  portions  of  the  city,  instead  of  being  merely 
ornamental  appendages. 


46 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ADVANTAGES  TO  BE  SECURED  BY  TIMELY  FORETHOUGHT 
—  INJURIOUS  RESULTS  OF  RECTANGULAR  ARRANGE- 
MENT    ON     AN     IRREGULAR     SURFACE   SUBURBAN 

ADDITIONS. 

AVING  pointed  out  some  of  the  defects  arising 
from  the  neglect  to  provide  in  season  for  future 
necessities,  I  propose  now  to  consider  some  of  the 
advantages  which  might  have  been  secured  by  such  fore- 
thought; in  doing  which,  however,  I  propose  only  to 
make  general  suggestions  which  may  be  equally  applica- 
ble elsewhere,  and  which  I  trust  will  serve  to  prove  the 
truth  of  my  assertion  that  even  on  a  level  site  the  princi- 
ples of  landscape  architecture  (according  to  the  definition 
I  have  given)  may  be  judiciously  applied  to  the  arrange- 
ment of  towns. 

Let  us  suppose  the  central  and  most  important  busi- 
ness portion  of  the  city  to  be  surrounded  by  a  series  of 
small  parks,  connected  by  broad  avenues  or  boulevards, 
tastefully  planted  and  adorned  with  fountains,  flower 
beds  and  appropriate  works  of  art.  Let  other  portions 
of  the  city,  appropriated  to  special  branches  of  business 
or  manufactures,  be  similarly  surrounded  and  isolated, 
and  from  each  of  these  areas,  let  a  series  of  boulevards 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


47 


radiate  on  lines  diagonal  to  the  general  course  of  the 
streets,  and  extend  as  far  as  might  be  desirable,  till  they 
merge  in  other  similar  avenues,  or  connect  with  extensive 
outlying  parks  or  suburban  additions. 

The  effect  would  be  that  the  inhabitants  of  every  part 
of  the  city  would  find  in  these  small  parks  and  boule- 
vards attractive  pleasure  grounds  immediately  accessible 
to  their  homes,  to  which  they  could  resort  when  the  toils 
of  the  day  were  over;  suburban  residents  would  enjoy 
the  pleasure  of  a  drive  through  a  series  of  pretty  gardens 
on  their  daily  route  to  and  from  their  places  of  business, 
instead  of  being  forced  to  take  a  zigzag  course  through  a 
series  of  monotonous  streets,  or  travel  a  weary  distance 
out  of  town  to  find  a  place  prepared  expressly  for  a 
pleasure  drive,  and  the  saving  of  time,  distance  and  labor, 
which  would  be  secured  in  the  daily  traffic  of  the  city, 
would  in  the  aggregate  more  than  compensate  for  the 
value  of  the  land  thus  occupied.  The  beauty  and 
attractive  interest  of  the  city  in  the  eyes  of  visitors  and 
strangers  would  be  incalculably  increased  by  the  refresh- 
ing variety  and  superb  effect  of  coming  at  intervals  upon 
these  beautifully  verdant  areas,  and  the  importance  of 
attaining  such  a  reputation  is  rarely  appreciated  as  it 
deserves.  The  attractions  of  a  city  do  not  alone  consist 
in  its  architectural  magnificence,  or  its  sources  of  amuse- 
ment and  culture,  though  these  are  important  elements. 
But  in  order  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  its  theatres, 
museums,  libraries,  lectures  and  social  pleasures,  it  is 
essential  that  the  means  of  access  to  them  should  be 
rendered  not  only  easy,  and  free  from  danger  or  dis- 


48  LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


comfort,  but  attractive  and  elegant,  so  that  the  recollec- 
tion of  the  enjoyment  shall  not  be  marred  by  an 
association  of  physical  discomfort  in  its  attainment.  The 
annual  increase  of  over  100,000  strangers  to  the  winter 
population  of  Paris,  is  due  quite  as  much  to  the  fact  that 
physical  comfort  and  all  the  appliances  of  elegance  and 
luxury  are  as  carefully  provided  in  the  means  of  attain- 
ment of  the  objects  of  attraction,  as  in  the  objects  them- 
selves. Supposing  each  one  to  expend  only  $500  during 
the  winter's  sojourn,  a  total  of  fifty  millions  is  added  to 
the  city's  income,  a  reflection  which  is  worthy  the  consid- 
eration of  those  who  think  it  a  waste  of  money  to  spend 
it  for  anything  but  actual  necessities.  But  beside  these 
advantages,  the  most  important  of  all,  and  one  which  at 
this  time  will  need  no  argument  beyond  its  mere  state- 
ment, is  the  obvious  fact  that  the  surrounding  of  the 
principal  business  and  manufacturing  districts  of  the 
city  with  broad  areas  planted  with  trees,  and  dividing  the 
outer  portions  into  sections  by  means  of  such  boulevards 
as  have  been  suggested,  would  constitute  the  best  possible 
safeguard  against  any  wide-spread  conflagration.  In 
every  design  of  town  arrangement,  reference  should  be 
had  to  the  danger  resulting  from  prevailing  winds  of 
peculiar  force,  and  so  far  as  possible  the  risk  should  be 
averted  or  guarded  against  by  means  of  intersecting  open 
areas  arranged  with  reference  thereto. 

I  am  of  course  aware  that  this  general  and  incomplete 
statement  of  a  system  is  liable  to  criticism,  and  many 
serious  and  perhaps  some '  insuperable  obstacles  to  its 
detailed  execution  will  present  themselves  to  the  practi- 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


49 


cal  mind.  I  shall  not  enter  upon  the  discussion  of  these 
questions.  I  do  not  presume  even  to  say  that  in  any 
case  it  would  be  possible  to  carry  out  such  a  design  as  I 
have  suggested  in  all  its  details.  My  object  has  been  to 
point  out  defects  in  preexisting  systems  which  cannot  be 
denied,  and  to  suggest  principles  by  which  those  evils 
may  be  averted.  How  far  those  principles  are  capable 
of  practical  application,  remains  to  be  seen.  It  is 
certain  that  we  have  such  an  opportunity  as  no  nation 
ever  before  enjoyed  of  testing  and  developing  both  the 
theory  and  the  practice  of  the  art. 

Before  taking  leave  of  Chicago  it  may  not  be  amiss  to 
call  attention  to  a  lesson,  the  truth  of  which  has  been 
confirmed  by  her  recent  experience. 

The  opportunity  of  reconstructing  the  plan  of  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  city,  before  rebuilding  upon  the 
burnt  districts,  naturally  suggested  itself  as  too  favorable 
to  be  suffered  to  escape,  but  the  effort  at  its  accomplish- 
ment resulted  as  all  similar  efforts  have  done.  Before 
the  ruins  of  London  had  ceased  smoking  after  the  great 
fire  of  1666,  a  plan  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  burnt 
district  was  prepared  and  laid  before  the  King  by  Chris- 
topher Wren,  which  was  so  obvious  an  improvement  upon 
the  old  system  of  narrow  and  crooked  streets,  that  a  very 
strong  effort  was  made  to  secure  its  adoption,  but  it  was 
found  impossible  to  reconcile  the  multitude  of  compli- 
cated and  conflicting  interests  which  must  necessarily  be 
affected,  and  no  essential  change  was  secured.  New 
York  had  a  similar  experience  after  the  fire  of  1835,  and 
Chicago  now  adds  her  experience  in  proof  of  the  fact 

4 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


that  except  under  a  despotic  government,  any  essential 
alteration  of  the  original  plan  of  a  city  must  be  regarded 
as  hopeless. 

Since  the  above  was  written,  the  destruction  by  fire  of 
the  richest  portion  of  Boston  has  raised  the  same  question 
of  the  possibility  of  re-arrangement  in  that  city.  The 
following  article  from  the  Boston  Commercial  Bulletin 
contains  so  much  that  is  pertinent  and  interesting  in  con- 
nection with  the  subject  that  I  insert  it  entire  : 

DIFFICULTIES  OF  REBUILDING  A  CITY. 

WHAT  THE  BOSTON  MERCHANTS  SAY. 

As  we  predicted  would  be  the  case,  the  efforts  of  our  Street  Com- 
missioners to  secure  the  desired  improvement  of  those  business  thor- 
oughfares included  within  the  burnt  district,  preliminary  to  rebuilding 
it,  are  met  with  strenuous  opposition  from  a  large  majority  of  the 
abuttors.  To  be  sure,  their  objections  are  of  a  purely  personal  char- 
acter, and  do  not  pretend  to  be  based  on  any  grounds  of  public  pol- 
icy ;  but,  nevertheless,  they  are  of  a  very  serious  nature,  and  have 
raised  the  question  as  to  how  far  those  public  exigences  which  demand 
the  widening  and  straightening  of  these  thoroughfares  will  justify  our 
municipal  government  in  running  counter  to  the  private  interests 
involved  in  the  undertaking.  This  question  will  have  to  be  carefully 
considered,  not  only  to  secure  the  ends  of  justice,  but  also,  to  save  the 
city  from  incurring  an  enormous  addition  to  its  debt  in  the  shape  of 
land  damages. 

That  these  projected  improvements  will  greatly  depreciate  the 
value,  for  mercantile  purposes,  of  hundreds  of  costly  estates  situated 
in  the  very  heart  of  the  city,  where  building  sites  command  almost 
fabulous  prices,  there  can  be  no  question.  Many  of  these  estates, 
with  every  inch  of  land  and  store  room  appertaining  to  them  utilized 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


5i 


and  crammed  to  their  utmost  capacity  were  barely  large  enough  to 
accommodate  the  growing  business  of  their  occupants  before  the  fire. 
Looking  to  the  probable  wants  of  the  commercial  future  they  needed 
to  be  enlarged  rather  than  curtailed.  But  if  they  must  be  cut  down, 
and  thus  rendered  unavailable  for  the  purposes  of  business  on  a  large 
scale,  to  which  they  were  formerly  devoted,  in  order  that  we  may 
have  immunity  from  great  fires,  as  well  as  wide  and  commodious 
streets  running  through  from  State  street  to  the  South  End  railroad 
depots,  then  their  owners  and  lessees  must  be  fairly  paid  for  the  per- 
sonal sacrifices  demanded  of  them.  They  cannot  be  expected  to 
offset  these  sacrifices  on  the  score  of  betterments  because  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  betterments  in  these  cases. 

A  widened  street  can  be  of  no  possible  benefit  to  an  abuttor,  if  it 
does  not  leave  him  land  enough  to  rebuild  a  store  on  such  as  will 
accommodate  his  business.  Besides,  it  is  the  opinion  of  many  of 
these  abutters,  that  wider  streets,  although  they  may  afford  greater 
facilities  for  through  travel  and  transportation,  will  not  offer  any 
special  or  additional  attraction  to  their  local  trade.  It  is  also  a  nota- 
ble fact  that  in  most  cases  where  they  are  ready  to  admit  the  public 
necessity  of  such  street  improvements,  they  still  insist  that  the 
widening  can  most  easily  and  cheaply  be  affected  on  the  side  opposite 
to  that  on  which  their  own  premises  are  located.  Such  an  opinion,  of 
course,  is  natural ;  but  then  it  shows  that  our  merchants  and  real 
estate  owners  in  that  quarter  of  the  city  are  standing  in  a  defensive 
attitude  against  what  they  regard  as  an  impending  slaughter  of  their 
interests,  and  hence  it  behooves  our  municipal  authorities  to  move 
with  great  caution  and  forbearance  in  the  matter. 

But  while  we  would  have  them  exceedingly  careful  not  to  take  a 
'  single  foot  of  land  needed  for  private  business  purposes  that  is  not 
positively  required  by  the  public  exigences  of  the  present  occasion, 
and,  moreover,  do  not  believe  that  it  is  necessary  to  make  every  street 
running  down  to  or  parallel  to  our  water  front  sixty  or  seventy  feet 
wide,  yet  we  would  counsel  no  niggardly  or  penny -wise  policy  in 
carrying  out  a  system  of  local  inprovements  which  is  to  stand  for  all 
future  time.    These  should  be  undertaken  on  a  liberal  but  not  extrav- 


52 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


agant  scale,  sacrificing  nothing  to  the  spirit  of  prodigality,  but  keep- 
ing in  view  the  two  great  fundamental  ideas  of  utility  and  progress. 
We  must  not  commit  the  error  of  providing  only  for  present  emer- 
gencies, but  must  try  to  realize  the  wants  of  Boston  commerce  as  it 
will  be  a  century  hence.  The  new  business  edifices  to  be  put  up  in 
the  burned  district  will  probably  be  the  most  costly  as  well  as  the 
most  substantial  ever  erected  in  any  city  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
and  after  they  are  built  it  will  be  too  late  to  think  of  making  changes 
in  our  street  lines.  Whatever  is  to  be  done  in  this  connection  must 
be  done  beforehand,  as  the  sad  opportunity  afforded  by  this  great  con- 
flagration is  not  likely  to  be  repeated  in  that  locality. 

But,  after  all  that  can  be  done  to  economize  space  for  commercial 
purposes,  the  hard  fact  must  still  remain,  that  the  business  formerly 
accommodated  in  this  burnt  distinct  can  never  be  wholly  put  back 
there.  Even  with  narrow  streets  its  territorial  limits  afforded  but  a 
scant  pattern  and  no  "  elbow  room  "  for  the  great  branches  of  trade 
which  had  been  concentrated  there.  But  after  these  contemplated 
street  improvements  shall  have  been  carried  out,  it  will  be  as  physi- 
cally impossible  for  them  to  get  back  bodily  into  their  old  quarters, 
as  it  would  be  to  crowd  a  bushel  of  corn  into  a  peck  measure.  They 
must  hereafter  be  content  to  scatter  themselves,  and  locate  further  up 
town,  or  wherever  there  may  be  a  chance  to  spread  out  with  the  con- 
ditions of  a  healthy  and  natural  growth.  The  Fort  Hill  district  must 
be  built  up  and  utilized  ;  the  old  North  end  must  be  rejuvenated, 
and  its  antique  structures  give  place  to  buildings  suited  to  the  wants 
of  modern  commerce.  Even  the  retail  trade  must  surrender  its  time- 
honored  haunts  on  Washington  and  Hanover  streets  to  the  pressure 
of  the  wholesale  business,  while  our  central  resident  population  must 
retreat  before  the  march  of  improvement  and  find  better  and  more 
pleasant  homes  in  the  outlying  wards  on  suburban  towns. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  such  an  arrangement  as 
I  have  suggested,  for  a  perfectly  level  site,  it  is  hardly 
conceivable  that  any  sane  man  will  attempt  seriously  to 
defend  the  rectangular  system  when  applied  to  a  tract 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE.  53 


comprising  much  inequality  of  surface.  Wherever  it  has 
been  applied  it  has  proved  enormously  costly,  incon- 
venient and  destructive  of  natural  beauty.  And  yet  the 
selfish  greed  of  real  estate  proprietors  prevents  a  depart- 
ure from  the  practice,  and  renders  them  callous  to  the 
sufferings  they  inflict  upon  the  future  inhabitants,  pro- 
vided only  that  they  can  secure  the  largest  immediate 
returns  from  the  sale  of  lots,  with  the  least  possible  out- 
lay in  preparing  them  for  market.  Recent  experience 
has  demonstrated  in  repeated  instances  that  a  larger 
outlay  for  a  more  elaborate  and  tasteful  design  for  sub- 
urban additions  has  proved  sufficiently  remunerative  to 
warrant  farther  investment  in  preparatory  plans  and 
improvements,  and  with  such  precedents  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  spur  of  self-interest  will  prevent  the  perpetra- 
tion of  such  barbarism  as  has  heretofore  prevailed. 

Take  the  common  case  of  a  town  on  a  river  bank, 
whose  site  comprises  a  level  area  of  bottom  land  of 
greater  or  less  extent,  backed  by  a  range  of  steep  wooded 
bluffs,  which  are  intersected  at  irregular  intervals  by 
ravines,  diverging  at  various  angles  from  the  course  of 
the  main  valley.  Every  Western  traveler  can  recall 
instances  of  towns  so  situated,  and  the  hideous  results 
of  the  effort  to  force  nature  into  formal  shape  by  laying 
out  the  streets  without  the  slightest  regard  to  topograph- 
ical features.  The  exercise  of  artistic  skill  and  judgment 
might  often  render  the  peculiar  natural  features  of  such 
a  site,  the  source  of  its  most  striking  and  attractive 
characteristic.  The  level  land  next  the  river  is  obviously 
the  most  appropriate  situation  for  the  commercial  and 


54 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


manufacturing  interests,  and  the  high  lands  which  over- 
look it,  for  the  best  residences.  The  steep  hillsides,  if 
preserved  in  their  natural  condition,  or  developed  into  a 
more  artistic  expression  of  their  natural  characteristics, 
by  appropriate  planting  and  culture,  would  form  a  strik- 
ingly beautiful  feature  in  the  general  aspect  of  the  town. 
Advantage  should  be  taken  of  ravines  to  secure  an  easy 
ascent  to  the  summit  of  the  bluff,  and  a  fine  avenue 
arranged  along  its  brow,  which  would  furnish  building 
sites  for  the  best  residences,  overlooking  the  lower  town, 
and  commanding  the  views  up  and  down  the  river. 
Footpaths  could  be  arranged  up  and  down  the  bluff, 
winding  sufficiently  to  secure  easy  grades  and  taking 
advantage  of  any  natural  terrace  or  "  coigne  of  vantage  " 
to  increase  the  picturesque  effect  by  the  introduction  of 
appropriate  decorations :  as  a  fountain,  a  monument,  or 
perhaps  a  rustic  arbor  and  a  bit  of  rich  lawn.  Thus  the 
face  of  the  bluff  which  is  commonly  rendered  a  hideous 
looking  precipice,  scarred  with  gullies,  and  unavailable 
for  any  useful  purpose,  would  become  a  chief  ornament 
and  striking  feature  in  the  general  aspect  of  the  town. 

The  picturesque  and  attractive  character  which  may 
be  conferred  upon  a  town  by  thus  making  an  ornamental 
use  of  areas  which  are  useless  for  other  purposes,  is 
almost  inconceivable  to  one  who  has  given  no  thought  to 
the  subject,  and  this  may  be  very  greatly  increased  by 
attention  to  various  little  details,  which  are  never  even 
thought  of  by  those  to  whom  the  work  is  commonly 
entrusted.  Suppose  for  instance,  as  is  frequently  the  case 
in  the  West,  that  the  site  of  a  town  is  intersected  by  one 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


55 


or  more  ravines,  beginning  a  mile  or  more  from  the  shore 
of  the  lake  or  river  on  which  the  town  is  situated.  In 
many  instances  these  ravines  assume  an  exceedingly 
picturesque  and  attractive  character,  attaining  a  depth  of 
a  hundred  feet  or  more,  sometimes  comprising  at  the 
bottom  a  charming  bit  of  secluded  lawn,  while  the  almost 
precipitous  sides  are  clothed  with  a  fine  growth  of  forest 
trees,  and  in  the  spring  are  brilliant  with  the  blossoms  of 
the  trillium,  anemone,  blood  root,  and  other  wild  flowers, 
which  seem  to  love  to  cluster  upon  such  positions  as  are 
most  difficult  of  access.  The  invariable  custom  in  laying 
out  land  comprising  such  features,  is  to  place  the  roads 
at  such  a  distance  from  the  ravine  as  to  admit  one  tier 
of  lots,  the  houses  on  which,  fronting  on  the  street,  will 
have  their  back  yards  running  to  the  bottom  or  across 
the  ravine,  the  object  being  simply  that  the  proprietors 
may  get  paid  for  the  land  comprised  in  the  ravine,  which 
is  unavailable  for  any  useful  purpose.  The  result  is 
that  all  effect  of  natural  beauty  is  lost  to  the  general 
public,  who  never  get  sight  of  the  ravine  except  from 
some  point  where  a  road  is  carried  across  it,  and  then  its 
attractive  expression  is  entirely  destroyed  by  the  fences 
running  across  it  to  mark  the  boundaries  of  the  different 
lots,  as  well  as  by  its  being  made  the  dirt  hole  in  which 
every  family  deposits  its  accumulating  store  of  old  bar- 
rels, boxes  and  battered  tinware.  If,  instead  of  this,  the 
roads  were  carried  on  each  side  just  on  the  edges  of  the 
bank,  and  buildings  only  allowed  on  the  opposite  side, 
the  ravine  would  form  an  ornamental  feature  between, 
on  which  the  houses  on  each  side  would  front,  and  the 


56 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


residents  on  each  side  would  feel  a  mutual  pride  and 
pleasure  in  keeping  it  tidy,  and  adorning  it  with  trees  and 
shrubbery.  It  is  easy  to  perceive  that  such  a  street 
would  form  a  highly  ornamental  feature  in  a  town,  the 
picturesque  effect  of  which  would  be  greatly  increased 
by  the  occasional  introduction  of  a  tasteful  bridge  as 
convenience  might  dictate. 

These  few  hints  as  to  the  application  of  general  prin- 
ciples will  serve,  I  trust,  to  illustrate  my  meaning  and  to 
prove  that  the  element  of  beauty  in  a  town  as  in  a  private 
place,  must  be  integral  to  itself, —  the  result  of  archi- 
tectural arrangement,  and  the  development  thereby  of 
whatever  attractive  features  its  site  may  possess  or  com- 
mand, and  that  it  is  only  by  the  exercise  of  timely 
forethought  in  the  preparation  of  a  design,  that  these 
results  can  be  secured.  Subsequent  decoration  by  fine 
buildings  and  works  of  art  will  of  course  serve  to  increase 
and  promote  the  general  effect  of  magnificence,  but  such 
decoration  can  never  render  a  place  beautiful  which  is 
not  intrinsically  so,  any  more  than  costly  jewelry  and 
elaborate  dressing  can  confer  beauty  upon  an  awkward, 
plain  and  ungainly  person. 

Of  late  years  the  attention  of  capitalists  has  been 
largely  drawn  to  the  subject  of  landscape  architecture  as 
a  means  of  increasing  the  value  of  suburban  property, 
by  the  tasteful  arrangement  of  large  areas  to  render  them 
attractive  as  building  sites.  In  some  instances  very 
large  sums  have  been  expended  in  making  improvements 
before  offering  the  lots  for  sale ;  the  roads  being  con- 
structed in  the  most  thorough  manner,  and  ample  pro- 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


57 


vision  made  for  sewerage,  water,  gas,  etc. ;  and  the  road- 
sides and  public  areas  tastefully  arranged  and  planted. 
In  other  cases  only  the  principal  roads  were  opened,  the 
lots  staked  and  numbered  and  sold  by  the  plot.  In  one 
instance  which  has  come  to  my  knowledge,  the  proprietor 
has  himself  built  the  houses  before  offering  the  lots  for 
sale.  From  the  best  evidence  I  have  been  able  to  obtain, 
the  plan  of  making  all  the  needful  arrangements  before- 
hand, though  involving  a  large  outlay,  has  proved  on  the 
whole  the  most  satisfactory  in  its  results.  "  Supply 
creates  demand,"  and  purchasers  seeing  what  they  want 
ready  at  hand,  with  the  assurance  that  no  further  assess- 
ments are  to  be  levied  for  improvements  yet  to  be  made, 
are  ready  and  glad  to  pay  liberally  for  its  immediate 
possession.  The  advantage  of  building  before  selling  is 
that  it  enables  the  proprietor  to  control  the  style,  and 
prevent  the  introduction  of  edifices  of  an  objectionable 
character. 

The  success  of  such  an  enterprise  must  in  all  cases 
be  finally  dependent  upon  the  architectural  skill  dis- 
plaved  in  its  arrangement.  Men  of  sense  will  not  be 
attracted  or  caught  by  a  mere  ornamental  design,  show- 
ing that  the  ground  is  cut  up  into  irregular  blocks  by 
squirming  roads,  which  not  unfrequently  are  supposed  to 
constitute  the  attractive  characteristic  of  the  landscape 
gardener's  art.  A  curve  for  the  sake  of  avoiding  a 
straight  line,  where  the  latter  is  most  desirable,  and  no 
obstacle  exists  to  prevent  it,  is  contrary  to  common  sense, 
which  good  taste  will  never  violate.  The  test  of  the 
architectural  skill  of  a  design  can  only  be  attained  by  a 


5» 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


careful  examination  of  its  adaptation  to  the  ground.  If 
it  is  then  found  that  the  roads  are  so  arranged  as  to  fit 
the  natural  surface,  securing  the  easiest  grades  and 
leaving  the  best  building  sites  in  the  most  desirable 
positions  relative  to  them,  and  showing  that  the  objects 
for  which  they  will  be  principally  wanted,  whether  for 
business  or  pleasure,  have  been  observed  in  their  arrange- 
ment so  that  they  will  obviously  facilitate  those  objects, 
then  the  essential  elements  of  skilful  arrangement  will 
have  been  secured,  on  which  the  comfort  and  convenience 
of  the  occupants  must  be  daily  dependant. 

Unless  these  points  have  been  observed,  the  introduc- 
tion of  ornamental  areas,  lakes,  fountains,  etc.,  will  not 
compensate  for  lack  of  common  sense  in  the  disposition 
of  those  features  which  affect  the  daily  comfort  of  the 
residents. 

In  arranging  suburban  additions  to  Western  towns  it  is 
important  to  hold  out  to  purchasers  the  inducement  of 
an  opportunity  to  secure  a  return  of  investment  by  future 
further  subdivision,  and  to  this  end  the  lots  should  be  of 
such  size,  and  so  shaped  that  such  subdivision  may  be 
easily  made,  without  injury  to  the  portion  which  the 
purchaser  would  wish  to  reserve  for  his  own  occupation. 
In  every  growing  town  of  the  West  is  to  be  found  a 
numerous  class  of  men  of  moderate  means  who  are 
seeking  an  opportunity  to  invest  a  small  surplus  in  a 
home  for  themselves,  but  who  cannot  afford  to  purchase 
solely  with  that  view,  yet  may  be  induced  to  make  an 
extra  effort  if  the  prospect  is  held  out  that  a  future  sale 
of  a  portion  may  aid  them  in  meeting  subsequent  pay- 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


59 


ments.  A  simple  division  into  rectangular  lots  of  proper 
size  for  a  homestead  does  not  meet  this  demand  effect- 
ually :  First,  because  they  are  not  large  enough  for 
subdivision,  and,  secondly,  because  they  have  no  refer- 
ence to  the  shape  of  the  ground,  which  is  often  such  that 
no  portion  can  be  set  off  which  is  in  itself  attractive, 
without  serious  injury  to  the  beauty  or  convenience  of 
that  which  is  left. 

The  men  who  are  desirous  of  making  such  investments 
are  usually  of  the  most  industrious  and  thrifty  class,  and 
consequently  such  as  it  is  most  desirable  to  secure  as 
permanent  occupants,  as  a  means  of  giving  such  charac- 
ter of  stability  and  respectability  to  the  place  as  will 
prove  the  most  powerful  attraction  to  others. 

Here  it  is  that  the  advantage  becomes  apparent  of 
making  the  arrangement  of  the  roads  and  lots  conform 
to  the  shape  of  the  ground  in  such  manner  that  every 
desirable  building  site  becomes  available,  without  injury 
or  inconvenience  to  others,  which  in  case  of  inequality  of 
surface  or  the  presence  of  attractive  natural  features  it 
is  impossible  to  do  by  a  system  of  rectangles.  It  is 
obvious  that  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  object  in  the 
most  desirable  manner,  the  tract  to  be  subdivided  should 
comprise  an  area  of  considerable  extent,  and  in  most 
cases  this  can  only  be  secured  by  the  mutual  consent  of 
several  proprietors.  My  own  experience  in  repeated 
instances  has  given  me  confidence  that  proprietors  of 
adjoining  estates  will  generally  acquiesce  in  a  plan  of 
improvement  which  commends  itself  when  fairly  laid 
before  them,  as  being  mutually  advantageous;  but  on  the 


6o 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


other  hand,  it  must  be  confessed  that  hardly  any  commun- 
ities are  free  from  representatives  of  the  class  whose 
object  seems  to  be  to  profit  by  the  labor  and  enterprise 
of  others,  and  who  block  the  efforts  of  their  neighbors  by 
refusing  to  cooperate  with  them. 

It  would  be  easy  to  point  out  instances  of  towns  or 
villages  possessing  all  the  requisite  elements  of  attractive 
development,  but  in  which  the  efforts  of  the  enterprising 
and  public  spirited  members  of  the  community  have 
been  completely  thwarted  by  the  swinish  obstinacy  of  a 
single  individual  of  the  class  alluded  to.  But  such  men 
have  existed  from  the  time  ^Esop  wrote  the  fable  of  the 
dog  in  the  manger,  and  we  can  only  trust  that  like  other 
vermin  whose  presence  is  offensive,  they  may  serve  some 
useful  purpose  of  which  we — and  probably  they  them- 
selves—  are  ignorant. 

The  point  of  essential  interest  in  the  experience  of 
those  who  have  undertaken  the  construction  of  orna- 
mental suburban  additions,  is  the  evidence  they  afford 
that  tasteful  and  skillfully  arranged  improvements  are 
readily  appreciated,  and  if  wisely  managed  are  very  sure 
to  prove  lucrative  investments. 

Inasmuch  as  they  add  materially  to  the  attractions  of 
a  city,  and  enhance  the  value  of  real  estate  in  its  vicinity, 
the  projectors  of  such  improvements  should  be  encour- 
aged so  far  as  possible  by  liberal  treatment  on  the  part  of 
municipal  authorities.  Even  if  the  motive  be  only  a 
speculative  one  the  result  is  nevertheless  a  public  bene'fit 
and  every  such  effort  should  be  facilitated  by  such 
public  aid  as  may  be  legitimately  afforded. 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE.  61 


CHAPTER  V. 

CITY   PARKS— LESSONS  OF  THE  CENTRAL  PARK  —  DIFFI- 
CULTY OF  SELECTING  A  SITE  FOR  A  PARK  METHOD 

OF  RELIEF  ADVANTAGES  OF  A  PLAN  —  PROPER  MAN- 
AGEMENT OF  STREET  PLANTING. 


CHIEF  difficulty  in  all  attempts  at  the  creation  of 
a  park  in  the  vicinity  of  any  city,  has  been  that  of 
agreeing  upon  its  location.  The  history  of  the 
Central  Park  comprises  some  incidental  features  of  inter- 
est, which  may  not  be  apparent  to  the  casual  observers.  In 
the  first  place  there  was  scarcely  any  room  for  dispute  as 
to  locality.  If  New  York  was  to  have  a  park  at  all,  it  could 
only  be  in  that  direction.  Singularly  enough,  too,  the  Cen- 
tral Park  serves  to  some  extent  to  corroborate  what  I  have 
heretofore  said,  of  the  effect  of  making  ornamental  use  of 
land  which  is  valueless  for  other  purposes.  The  land  it 
occupies  was  a  series  of  barren  ledges,  of  such  forbidding 
aspect  that  no  one  was  tempted  to  incur  the  expense  of 
improving  even  so  small  a  portion  as  was  required  for  a 
suburban  residence,  and  its  only  inhabitants  were  the 
hordes  of  squatters,  whose  shanties,  clustering  under  the 
shelter  of  the  rocks,  served  only  to  heighten  the  dreary 
aspect  of  the  place.  The  land  in  the  vicinity  possessed 
only  a  nominal  value,  and  the  prospect  of  its  settlement 


62 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


seemed  very  remote.  The  work  at  its  inception  was 
denounced  by  many  short-sighted  economists  as  a  meas- 
ure of  indefensible  extravagance,  and  all  the  sterotyped 
phrases  of  abuse,  which  pertain  to  political  blackguardism 
were  brought  to  bear  upon  those  who  fa.vored  its  prosecu- 
tion. Yet  in  the  ten  years  succeeding  the  commence- 
ment of  work  upon  the  park,  the  increased  valuation  of 
taxable  property  in  the  wards  immediately  surrounding  it 
was  no  less  than  fifty-four  million  dollars,  affording  a  sur- 
plus, after  paying  the  interest  on  all  the  city  bonds  issued 
for  the  purchase  and  construction  of  the  park,  of  three 
million  dollars,  a  sum  sufficient,  if  used  as  a  sinking  fund, 
to  pay  the  entire  principal  and  interest  of  the  cost"  of  the 
park  in  less  time  than  was  required  for  its  construction. 
The  incidental  value  of  such  a  work  as  a  means  of  at- 
tracting and  diffusing  wealth  in  the  city  is,  of  course,  ines- 
timable, but  no  more  conclusive  evidence  could  be 
afforded  than  can  be  clearly  proved  and  stated,  of  the 
practical  value  of  broad  and  liberal  schemes  of  improve- 
ment which  add  to  die  elegance  of  a  city  and  render  it 
attractive  to  visitors,  while  they  strengthen  the  local  pride 
and  affection  of  the  inhabitants. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Central  Park  fails  to  supply  the 
demand  of  the  old  and  densely  peopled  regions  of  the 
city,  for  an  easily  accessible  place  of  resort  for  pedestri- 
ans, and  such  a  place  in  the  heart  of  the  city,  New  York 
with  all  her  wealth  will  never  be  able  to  secure,  and  yet 
such  resorts  for  those  who  have  not  the  means  to  provide 
themselves  with  the  enjoyment  of  nature's  gifts  of  refresh- 
ment are  certainly  as  important,  and  involve  moral  duties 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


63 


as  onerous,  as  the  provision  of  the  more  extensive  driving 
parks  for  the  wealthier  classes. 

Boston,  in  this  respect,  in  her  Common  and  Public  Gar- 
den, comprising  seventy-five  acres  in  the  heart  of  the 
city,  is  better  provided  than  any  city  in  the  country,  but 
Boston  has  no  grand  outside  park,  though  she  has  abund- 
ance of  admirable  sites  which  are  available.  The  diffi- 
culty is  the  one  already  suggested,  that  no  one  site  will 
suit  all  parties,  and  any  one  party  can  block  the  game  of 
the  others.  The  case  is  by  no  means  a  singular  one,  and 
the  readiest  means  of  relief  would  seem  to  be  the  adop- 
tion of  a  system  of  mutual  improvements  between  the  city 
and  its  outlying  suburbs,  in  the  prosecution  of  which,  the 
suggestions  I  have  made  in  regard  to  the  improvement  of 
otherwise  valueless  land  might  be  wisely  applied.* 

Instead  of  looking  for  a  tract  possessing  intrinsically 
beautiful  or  picturesque  features,  let  the  city  avail  itself 
of  any  tracts  which  are  intrinsically  valueless,  and  pro- 
ceed to  adorn  and  render  them  attractive.  Such  places 
may  be  found  of  greater  or  less  extent  within  the  limits, 
or  in  the  vicinity  of  almost  every  city,  which  detract  from 
or  destroy  the  value  of  adjacent  property  by  their 
unsightly  or  offensive  appearance,  as  being  marshy  or 

*Since  the  above  was  written,  I  have  received  from  Boston  an 
"  Essay  and  plan  for  the  improvement  of  the  city  of  Boston,"  by  my 
former  partner,  R.  Morris  Copeland.  The  general  design  is  precisely 
in  conformity  with  the  principles  I  have  advocated  —  a  series  of  parks 
connected  by  broad  avenues,  dividing  the  city  into  sections,  and  pro- 
viding for  those  classes  who  are  least  able  to  provide  for  themselves, 
the  refreshment  of  pleasure  gardens  within  easy  access  of  their  homes. 


64 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


composed  of  barren  ledges.  The  Central  Park  has  been 
cited  as  an  illustration  of  the  effect  of  improving  such  a 
tract  in  increasing  the  value  of  surrounding  property,  and 
a  still  more  striking  instance  is  that  of  the  Pare  de  Buttes 
Chaumont,  constructed  since  1864,  in  Paris,  which  occu- 
pies the  site  of  old  abandoned  plaster  quarries.  Before 
the  park  was  made,  the  ground  was  an  arid  wilderness  of 
clay  mounds  and  excavations  left  by  the  quarrymen.  By 
skillful  management  this  has  been  converted  into  an  ex- 
ceedingly picturesque  tract,  comprising  a  lake,  in  the  cen- 
ter of  which  rises  an  isolated  rock  more  than  one  hundred 
feet  high.  Precipices  of  corresponding  height  rise  from 
its  shores,  and  are  connected  with  the  island  by  a  suspen- 
sion bridge,  and  all  parts  rendered  accessible  by  pic- 
turesque winding  paths.  These  precipitous  heights  are 
merely  the  remains  of  the  old  quarries,  and,  of  course, 
their  crevices  and  level  areas  have  been  provided  with 
soil,  and  planted  with  appropriate  trees,  shrubs  and  vines, 
while  the  more  level  portions  are  arranged  with  carriage 
drives  —  the  whole  comprising  forty-five  acres  of  orna- 
mental ground,  quite  unique  in  its  character. 

The  improvement  of  such  areas,  which  are  worthless 
for  other  purposes,  at  once  confers  value  upon  surround- 
ing property  by  rendering  it  attractive  for  residence  pur- 
poses. If  the  plan  were  adopted  by  municipalities  of 
securing  and  improving  such  tracts  wherever  they  were 
available  in  eligible  situations,  even  if  they  comprised  but 
a  few  acres,  connecting  them  with  each  other  and,  if  pos- 
sible, with  outlying  suburbs,  by  means  of  fine  ornamental 
avenues,  while  the  suburban  towns  themselves  adopted  a 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


65 


corresponding  system  so  far  as  means  and  opportunities 
enabled  them  to  do  so,  the  effect  would  be  to  furnish  a 
widely  extended  system  of  magnificent  drives,  expanding 
occasionally  into  gem-like  gardens  of  irregular  size  and 
shape,  and  conferring  a  park-like  character  upon  the 
whole  surrounding  country,  which  would  exert  a  wider 
and  more  beneficial  influence  in  cultivating  and  refining- 
the  popular  taste  than  is  possible  by  means  of  isolated 
parks  to  be  visited  solely  for  purposes  .of  recreation. 
Such  a  system  would  afford,  in  fact,  a  greater  extent  of 
driveway,  and  probably  through  a  greater  variety  of 
scenery  than  any  city  would  be  able  to  secure  in  a  single 
park  ;  it  would  be  readily  accessible  from  all  parts  of  the 
city,  as  well  as  the  suburbs  with  which  it  would  directly 
connect,  and  the  expense  of  purchase,  construction  and 
maintenance  would  be  less  than  that  of  a  single  area  of 
equal  extent,  while  it  would  be  more  cheerfully  borne 
because  i^enefits  would  be  more  widely  and  equally  dis- 
tributed, while  the  work  of  improvement  and  consequent 
cost  might  also  be  extended  over  a  longer  period  of  time 
instead  of  being  condensed,  and  enormously  increased,  as 
it  must  be,  if  its  immediate  completion  is  demanded. 

Herein,  in  fact,  is  one  of  the  chief  advantages  of  a 
previously  prepared  design  of  arrangement,  whether  it  be 
for  a  town,  a  park,  or  a  private  estate,  since  by  means  of 
it  the  work  can  be  arranged  in  order  of  its  importance, 
the  most  essential  portions  performed  as  required  from 
year  to  year,  and  with  the  knowledge  from  the  outset  that 
it  is  always  progressing  to  the  accomplishment  of  a  deter- 
mined end,  the  unity  of  design  being  preserved  through- 

5 


66 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


out.  Thus  if  the  general  design  for  the  arrangement  of 
the  fine  avenues  and  parks  is  determined,  the  work  of 
preparation  may  proceed  in  order  of  importance,  the  first 
being  grading  and  drainage,  because  until  that  is  done 
there  can  be  no  planting,  which  is  the  most  essential 
object  of  esthetic  improvement.  When  the  planting  is 
done,  further  outlay  for  improvement  may  be  postponed, 
or  expended  from  year  to  year.  Architectural  structures 
and  ornamental  works  of  art  can  be  added  at  any  time, 
and  may  continue  to  be  contributed  as  long  as  they  can 
be  tastefully  introduced,  but  the  growth  of  trees  is  the 
work  of  time,  which  can  only  be  partially,  and  by  no  means 
satisfactorily  accomplished  by  the  modern  appliances 
for  the  removal  of  trees  of  large  size.  An  immediate 
effect,  it  is  true,  may  be  thus  secured  at  a  very  large  cost, 
but  the  trees  thus  removed  will  never  attain  the  grace 
and  dignity  of  form  and  rich  luxuriance  of  foliage  which 
comprise  the  essential  elements  of  their  beauty  and 
character. 

No  such  thing  as  a  system  of  street  planting  under 
municipal  regulation  has,  to  my  knowledge,  been  adopted 
by  any  city  in  the  country.  Every  proprietor  of  a  lot 
claims,  and  is  allowed,  the  right  of  planting  what  he 
pleases  in  front  of  his  own  premises,  and  the  result,  of 
course,  is  an  utter  deficiency  of  the  symmetrical  and  im- 
posing effect  which  might  be  secured  b^  the  practical 
application  of  an  artistic  design.  No  two  proprietors  act 
in  concert  in  the  selection  of  variety  or  size  of  trees. 
One  man  pays  a  high  price  to  secure  two  or  three  large 
elms,  brought  from  the  woods,  where  they  have  run  up 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


67 


tall  and  spindling,  with  a  tuft  of  branches  at  the  top, 
which  are  cut  back  to  stumpy  projecting  prongs,  to  cor- 
respond to  the  necessary  mutilated  condition  of  the  roots. 
Such  trees  may  survive,  and  even  send  out  a  luxuriant 
growth  of  spray  and  foliage,  but  the  natural  characteris- 
tics of  the  tree  are  lost  and  can  never  be  fully  recovered, 
and  the  chances  are  that  it  will  exhibit  from  the  outset 
only  a  meagre  and  sickly  appearance.  His  next  neighbor, 
perhaps,  goes  to  a  nursery  and  gets  half  a  dozen  maples, 
horse  chestnuts  or  ash  trees,  and  plants  them  all  on  a 
space  no  larger  than  would  be  covered  by  a  single  one  of 
either  variety  when  fully  grown.  The  next  plants  no  trees 
outside  his  front  area,  but  crowds  that  enclosure  with 
evergreens,  which,  if  they  ever  attain  half  their  natural 
size,  will  be  pressing  into  his  windows  on  one  side  and 
interfering  with  the  sidewalk  on  the  other,  while  long 
spaces  are  left  vacant  on  which  no  planting  whatever  is 
done.  The  value  and  importance  of  trees  as  a  means  of 
increasing  the  beauty  and  attractive  character  of  a  fine 
street,  requires  no  stronger  argument  than  the  fact  that 
even  such  a  helter-skelter,  unmeaning  and  slovenly  style 
of  planting  as  the  above,  if  continued  for  sufficient  dis- 
tance to  give  an  appearance  of  general  verdure  to  the 
view  up  or  down  the  street,  excites  an  involuntary  emo- 
tion of  pleasure  in  the  mind  of  the  observer ;  but  few 
people  who  have  not  seen  it  can  realize  how  much  this  is 
increased  if  the  work  has  been  systematically  done  ac- 
cording to  design,  the  varieties  of  trees  being  selected 
according  to  natural  characteristics  of  form  and  foliage, 
and  the  individual  trees  being  of  uniform  size  and  sym- 


68 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


metrical  form.  But  in  order  to  the  possibility  of  such  a 
system,  it  is  necessary  not  only  that  the  whole  work  of 
street  planting  should  be  under  the  direction  of  a  compe- 
tent superintendent,  acting  by  municipal  authority,  but  also 
that  he  should  have  at  command  a  nursery  of  such  extent 
as  to  furnish  abundant  supplies  of  trees  grown  and  pruned 
expressly  for  the  purpose,  so  that  any  desirable  number 
of  the  same  size  and  general  form,  of  any  given  variety, 
can  be  furnished  to  order  and  a  whole  street  planted  at 
once.  The  nursery,  therefore,  should  also  belong  to  the 
city,  and  be  under  the  direction  of  the  city  forester.  The 
cost  to  individuals  would  be  trifling,  just  as  the  cost  of 
water  is  insignificant  when  furnished  by  the  city,  in  com- 
parison with  what  it  would  be  if  every  man  had  to  supply 
himself,  and  if  the  increased  elegance  and  beauty,  which 
may  be  thus  secured,  could  be  generally  appreciated,  the 
measure  would  commend  itself  to  all  who  had  a  reason- 
able degree  of  local  pride  and  affection. 

"  The  greatest  part  of  the  beauty  of  Paris  is  due  to  her 
gardens  and  her  trees.  She  is,  indeed,  a  city  of  palaces  ; 
but  which  is  the  most  attractive,  the  view  up  that  splendid 
avenue  and  garden  stretching  from  the  heart  of  the  city 
to  the  Arc  de  Triomphe,  or  that  of  the  finest  architectural 
features  of  Paris?  What  would  the  new  boulevards  of 
white  stone  be  without  the  softening  and  refreshing  aid  of 
those  long  lines  of  well  cared-for  trees  that  everywhere 
rise  around  the  buildings?  The  makers  of  new  Paris  — 
who  deserve  the  thanks  of  all  the  filthy  cities  of  the  world 
for  setting  such  an  example  —  answer  these  questions  by 
pulling  down  close  and  filthy  quarters  where  the  influen- 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


69 


ces  of  sweet  air  and  green  trees  were  never  felt  and  the 
sun  could  scarcely  penetrate,  and  turning  them  into  gems 
of  bosky  verdure  and  sweetness ;  by  piercing  them  with 
long  wide  streets  flanked  with  lines  of  green  trees ;  and  in 
a  word,  by  relieving  in  every  possible  direction  man's 
work  in  stone  with  the  changeful  and  ever  pleasing  beauty 
of  vegetable  life.  In  Paris  public  gardening  is  not  con- 
fined to  parks  in  one  end  of  the  town,  and  absent  from 
the  places  where  it  is  most  wanted.  It  follows  the  street 
builders  with  trees,  turns  the  little  squares  into  gardens 
unsurpassed  for  good  taste  and  beauty,  drops  down  grace- 
ful fountains  here  and  there,  and  margins  them  with 
flowers ;  it  presents  to  the  eye  of  the  poorest  workman 
every  charm  of  vegetation,  it  brings  him  pure  air,  and 
aims  directly  and  effectively  at  the  recreation  and  benefit 
of  the  people." 

The  above  extract,  from  a  most  charming  and  instruct- 
ive book,  "  The  Parks,  Promenades  and  Gardens  of  Paris," 
by  W.  Robinson,  F.  L.  S.,  conveys  in  a  few  words  the  idea 
I  am  endeavoring  to  impress  upon  the  reader,  that  the  ele- 
ments of  beauty  should  be  everywhere  present,  pervading 
all  portions  of  the  city  as  an  essential  ingredient,  instead 
of  being  confined  to  a  point  which  is  set  apart  expressly 
for  the  purpose. 

No  man  who  has  the  least  love  of  natural  beauty  can 
fail  to  admire  a  fine  specimen  of  a  tree,  even  before  it  has 
attained  the  majestic  dignity  which  age  alone  can  confer. 
If  its  form  is  symmetrical,  its  trunk  well  proportioned  to 
the  mass  of  branches  and  spray  which  it  has  to  support, 
and  its  foliage  luxuriant  and  vigorous,  conveying  the  idea 


7° 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


of  exuberant  health,  it  is  always  a  beautiful  object  and 
never  fails  to  excite  an  emotion  of  pleasure.  A  street 
lined  on  each  side  with  such  trees  of  a  corresponding  size, 
would  possess  an  intrinsic  beauty,  which  would  add  incal- 
culably to  whatever  architectural  elegance  it  might  pos- 
sess, and  would  go  far  to  make  up  for  any  deficiencies  in 
that  respect.  Variety  might  be  secured  by  changing  the 
character  of  the  mass,  but  not  by  an  indiscriminate  mixture 
of  different  kinds  of  trees,  which  destroys  all  symmetrical 
effect,  and  in  fact  fritters  away  the  sense  of  variety. 

Let  any  one  observe  the  character  of  individual  trees 
such  as  are  generally  planted  in  our  city  streets,  and  mark 
also  the  general  effect  and  try  to  contrast  it  in  his  mind 
with  the  possibility  above  suggested.  He  will  very  rarely 
find  a  tree  possessing  any  real  beauty  of  its  own,  and  very 
many,  and  especially  of  those  of  large  size  which  have 
been  removed  at  great  cost,  are  not  only  utterly  deficient 
in  grace  and  symmetry  of  form,  but  present  such  a  meagre 
and  sickly  display  of  foliage  as  can  excite  no  feeling  of 
pleasure  in  the  mind.  With  such  deficiency  of  attractive 
interest  in  the  individual  specimens,  and  with  an  utter  lack 
of  system  in  planting,  it  is  by  no  means  surprising  that  no 
effect  is  produced  which  is  worthy  of  attention  as  confer- 
ring any  distinct  expression. 

The  large  sums  which  are  annually  expended  in  all  our 
cities  in  tree-planting,  are  in  fact  wasted  so  far  as  the 
results  attained  will  compare  with  what  might  be  secured 
by  a  more  judicious  system,  and  it  is  one  of  the  incon- 
sistencies resulting  from  general  ignorance  of  the  subject, 
that  a  matter  of  such  vital  importance  to  the  beauty  and 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


7? 


attractive  interest  of  the  city  should  be  left  uncared  for. 
Every  city  should  own  or  control  its  own  nurseries,  in 
which  the  best  varieties  of  trees  for  street-planting  should 
be  grown  at  such  distance  apart  as  would  insure  a  healthy 
development,  and  pruned  and  trained  in  symmetrical  form 
till  they  attained  a  proper  size  for  planting  in  their  final 
positions.  The  whole  work  of  planting,  including  the 
selection  and  arrangement  of  varieties,  should  be  under 
the  direction  of  a  competent  superintendent,  who  should 
also  be  responsible  for  their  subsequent  care  and  culture. 
The  care  of  all  public  areas,  and  their  decoration  with 
trees,  shrubbery  and  flowers,  should  be  entrusted  to  the 
same  officer.  If  competent  to  the  duties  of  the  position 
and  faithful  in  their  performance,  he  might  confer  upon 
the  city  a  character  of  refined  elegance  which  is  unattain- 
able without  such  aid  by  any  degree  of  architectural  display. 

While  on  the  subject  of  street  decoration  it  will  be  in 
place  to  allude  to  the  very  great  addition  to  their  attract- 
ive appearance,  which  might  be  secured,  on  such  streets 
and  avenues  as  are  occupied  by  residences  standing  a  few 
feet  back  from  the  sidewalk,  by  the  entire  abolition  of 
front  fences,  or  area  railings.  These  fences  and  gates  are 
often  very  costly  and  always  very  ugly,  and  as  it  is  very 
rare  that  two  of  the  same  pattern  are  in  juxtaposition,  the 
effect  of  the  whole  is  only  that  of  an  infinite  variety  of 
ugliness.  If  all  these  fences  were  removed,  and  the  front 
area  left  open  to  the  street,  bounded  only  by  a  curbing 
rising  a  few  inches  above  the  sidewalk,  the  sod  inside 
lying  flush  with  its  surface,  the  view  of  the  houses  would 
be  relieved  of  a  feature  which  never  fails  to  mar  the  effect 


72 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


of  whatever  architectural  beauty  they  may  possess,  the 
areas  themselves  would  form  beautiful  additions  to  the 
attractions  of  the  street  by  giving  a  rich  finish  to  its  sides, 
and  the  apparent  width  of  the  streets  would  be  increased 
by  the  depth  of  the  areas  on  each  side.  In  the  progress 
of  taste  and  civilization,  men  are  gradually  coming  to 
perceive  that  fences,  under  any  circumstances,  are  objec- 
tionable, and  are  only  endurable  as  matters  of  necessity, 
when  they  should  be  as  simple  and  inconspicuous  as  pos- 
sible. They  have  been  banished  from  cemetery  lots, 
which  they  have  so  long  been  suffered  to  disfigure,  and 
often  at  enormous  cost  to  the  proprietors.  They  have 
disappeared  from  all  the  public  squares  and  small  parks 
in  New  York  City,  and  the  additional  beauty  conferred  by 
their  removal  is  almost  incredible.  The  next  step  will  be 
the  removal  of  area  railings,  and  I  am  confident  the  day 
is  near  at  hand  when  we  shall  wonder  that  we  could  ever 
have  expended  so  much  money  to  injure  so  greatly  the 
appearance  of  our  streets. 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


73 


CHAPTER  VI. 

IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  WORK  WE  HAVE  TO  DO  IN  PRE- 
PARING THE  NEW  COUNTRY  FOR  CIVILIZED  HABITA- 
TION LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE    THE  ART  WHICH 

LIES  AT  ITS  FOUNDATION. 

HE  world  is  always  wondering  at  the  exhibition 
of  the  last  evidence  of  human  skill,  enterprise  and 
power.  The  public  works,  the  palaces,  hotels, 
steamboats  and  ships,  which  in  their  day  are  described  as 
magnificent  triumphs  of  ingenuity  and  energetic  enterprise, 
but  which  in  the  opinion  of  croakers  must  prove  ruinous 
to  their  projectors,  are  found  in  a  very  few  years  to  be 
inadequate  to  the  public  necessity,  and  are  so  far  eclipsed 
by  the  new  creations  which  that  necessity  inspires,  that 
they  sink  into  comparative  insignificance. 

And  the  same  is  true  of  the  growth  of  new  cities.  To 
some  of  us  who  are  not  yet  decrepid,  it  seems  but  yesterday 
that  travellers  who  had  penetrated  by  weary  stage  journey 
into  the  wilds  of  Western  New  York,  came  back  with 
enthusiastic  accounts  of  the  wonderful  city  of  Rochester, 
which  had  sprung  into  being  in  a  day  and  attained  civic 
rank  while  the  stumps  were  still  standing  in  the  streets. 
Then  came  Buffalo,  and  Cincinnati  and  Chicago,  each 
outstripping  the  other,  and  each  confident  that  it  was  the 


74 


LANDSCAPE  AR  CHITE C TURE. 


Ultima  Thule.  But  each  has  found  itself  the  stepping 
stone  to  regions  of  greater  and  more  varied  resources, 
demanding  more  expansive  systems  of  development. 
Chicago  in  a  single  generation  has  risen  from  an  obscure 
village  to  be  the  greatest  lumber  market,  the  greatest  grain 
market,  and  the  greatest  provision  market,  not  in  the 
United  States  alone,  but  in  the  world.  What  is  the 
explanation  ?  Simply  that  the  wealth  of  production  already 
developed  in  the  regions  of  which  she  is  the  depot  of 
supply  and  distribution,  is  greater  than  is  elsewhere  con- 
centrated at  any  one  point.  But  those  regions  are  but 
thinly  settled  in  comparison  to  their  capacity ;  their  pro- 
ductive powers  are  not  yet  half  developed,  and  their  whole 
area  is  insignificant  in  comparison  with  what  still  lies 
beyond  unappropriated  and  valueless  till  its  latent  powers 
are  touched  by  the  magic  wand  of  labor. 

The  burning  of  Chicago  is  simply  the  destruction  of  the 
depot  of  the  railroads  which  concentrate  there,  and  the 
means  at  command  for  her  reconstruction  are  the  com- 
bined wealth  of  all  the  regions  traversed  by  those  roads 
The  energy  and  enterprise  with  which  she  is  again  springing 
up  from  her  ashes,  is  based  upon  such  knowledge  of  the 
value  of  those  resources  as  inspires  the  fullest  confidence 
of  lucrative  returns.  It  astonishes  the  world  because 
there  is  no  precedent  by  which  a  realizing  sense  of  the 
measure  of  those  resources  can  be  obtained.  And  if  this 
is  true  of  the  regions  now  tributary  to  Chicago,  which 
have  grown  up  with  her  and  of  which  she  is  the  just  expo- 
nent, how  much  more  difficult  is  it  to  obtain  an  idea  of 
all  that  lies  beyond. 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


75 


It  is  only  by  comparison  with  some  standard  whose 
proportions  have  assumed  a  definite  form  in  the  mind, 
that  any  approach  to  a  conception  of  the  vast  area  which 
still  remains  unoccupied  between  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Pacific  can  be  obtained.  The  statement  of  its  contents 
in  acres  or  square  miles  conveys  no  impression  whatever. 
Even  an  inspection  of  such  portions  of  it  as  are  already 
accessible,  serves  to  aid  the  mind  to  grasp  the  idea  of 
its  extent  only  when  the  comparative  insignificance  of 
what  has  been  seen  is  proved  by  reference  to  maps  show- 
ing its  relative  proportion  to  the  whole. 

The  traveler  approaching  from  the  East  is  impressed 
with  the  sense  of  solemn  grandeur  inspired  by  the  vast 
extent  and  dreary  monotony  of  the  great  plains.  He 
flies  by  day  and  night  over  a  road  so  level  and  straight 
as  to  admit  the  full  speed  of  steam  power,  seeing  no 
change  in  the  boundless  expanse  on  every  side,  save 
when  he  crosses  the  sandy  beds  into  which  great  rivers 
have  sunk  exhausted  in  the  effort  to  span  the  weary 
distance.  He  recalls  the  fact  that  he  is  crossing  the 
plains  at  the  narrowest  point,  and  tries  in  vain  to  con- 
ceive of  their  transverse  extent  from  their  unknown  limits 
in  the  frozen  North  to  their  Southern  boundaries  in 
Mexico. 

All  this  region  which  till  a  comparatively  recent  date 
has  been  supposed  to  be  a  desert  and  incapable  of  culti- 
vation, requires  only  forest  culture,  to  restore  the  humidity 
of  climate,  which  is  all  that  is  needed  to  develop  its 
capacity  of  production.  The  possibility  of  forest  culture 
has  been  abundantly  proved  at  various  points,  and  espe- 


76 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


cially  by  the  experimental  nurseries  established  by  Mr. 
R.  S.  Elliott  on  the  line  of  the  Kansas  Pacific  Railroad. 
The  railroad  companies  are  adopting  measures  for  the 
prosecution  of  the  work  of  tree  planting  on  a  scale  com- 
mensurate with  its  acknowledged  importance.  Meantime 
individuals  and  colonies  are  everywhere  penetrating  the 
borders  of  the  vast  region,  and  like  the  silent  and  insen- 
sible process  of  cellular  growth,  the  germ  is  expanding 
which  we  know  must  result  in  their  final  complete 
occupation. 

The  vague  sense  of  solemnity  resulting  from  the  simple 
impression  of  vast,  inconceivable  extent,  in  crossing  these 
regions  is  almost  appalling.  But  the  continued,  solemn 
monotone  seems  but  the  appropriate  and  fitting  prelude 
to  the  glorious  revelation  at  its  close,  when  all  at  once, 
as  if  by  magic,  the  whole  Western  sky  is  filled  with  the 
grand  outline  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  chain,  the  majestic 
forms  of  their  great  spurs  thrown  out  upon  the  plains 
like  outposts  guarding  the  flanks  of  the  deep  gorges 
which  give  access  to  the  mystic  land  beyond,  while  in 
the  far  distance  the  sky  is  fretted  with  the  endless  variety 
of  mountain  forms  and  snow-clad  ranges,  which  impress 
upon  the  mind  the  conviction  that  the  vast  plains  which 
have  just  been  traversed  are  only  justly  proportionate  as 
the  pedestal  of  so  grand  a  monument. 

The  combined  area  of  all  the  States  east  of  the 
Mississippi  is  less  than  that  of  the  regions  which  still  lie 
unappropriated  to  the  use  of  civilized  man  between  that 
river  and  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Portions  of  it  have  filled 
up  rapidly  since  the  opening  of  the  Pacific  railroads,  and 


i 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


11 


thriving  towns  and  cities  have  sprung  up  where  but 
yesterday  was  the  home  of  the  Indian  or  the  trapper. 
The  traveler  is  astonished  at  finding  such  a  population, 
supplied  with  all  the  refinements  and  luxuries  of  civili- 
zation, in  the  regions  whose  names  have  always  been 
synonymous  in  his  mind  with  scenes  of  savage  loneliness, 
and  traveling  only  on  the  easily  accessible  routes  which 
have  been  thus  occupied,  he  is  apt  to  imagine  that  the 
most  important  part  of  the  work  is  already  done,  but  the 
idea  thus  attained  of  the  extent  already  settled  is  the 
best  possible  standard  to  enable  the  mind  to  grasp  the 
conception  of  that  which  remains,  when  by  reference  to 
the  map  the  comparative  insignificance  of  the  former  is 
discovered. 

Year  by  year  the  advancing  tide  of  civilization  is 
forcing  its  way  by  new  routes  into  this  region  of  mystery 
and  beauty.  Year  by  year  new  lands  are  appropriated 
and  the  work  of  preparation  for  human  habitation  com- 
menced, and  year  by  year  the  sites  are  selected  on 
which  new  towns  and  cities  are  to  grow  up  and  form  the 
central  points  of  supply  and  distribution  of  the  regions 
around,  which  will  teem  with  a  dense  population. 

We  know  that  all  this  region  of  untold  wealth  which  is 
our  heritage,  will  at  no  distant  day  be  intersected  by 
railroads,  its  treasures  of  mineral  and  vegetable  wealth 
attracting  to  it  an  enterprising  and  industrious  class  of 
inhabitants,  while  its  wonderful  developments  of  sublime 
and  beautiful  natural  features  will  render  it  a  central 
field  of  attractive  interest  for  the  pleasure  seekers  of  the 
whole  world. 


78 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


We  know  that  the  health,  and  the  daily  comfort  and 
convenience  of  countless  millions  who  are  to  inhabit  the 
towns  and  cities  which  are  to  grow  up  through  all  this 
region,  may  be  affected  for  ages  after  we  are  forgotten,  by 
the  care  or  the  carelessness  with  which  we  perform  our 
duty  in  designing  their  primary  arrangement. 

The  site  selected  may  comprise  within  its  area  natural 
features  for  whose  possession,  for  esthetic  use,  old  cities 
would  gladly  expend  millions,  were  it  possible  for  millions 
to  purchase  them ;  it  may  command  views  of  mountains, 
lakes  or  rivers,  which  lovers  of  the  picturesque  would 
traverse  half  the  globe  to  see.  The  value  of  such 
possessions  to  the  future  town  or  city  which  is  to  arise 
on  that  spot  is  no  more  within  the  compass  of  estimate 
than  that  of  the  love  which  has  created  the  beautiful  in 
nature,  and  bestowed  upon  man  the  power  to  enjoy  it. 
Yet  this  priceless  opportunity  may  be  lost  forever  for 
want  of  an  appreciative  eye  to  detect  its  value.  The 
gem  may  be  thrown  aside  as  worthless,  because  no  one 
is  at  hand  to  detect  its  lustre  and  arrange  its  setting. 

The  duty  of  laying  out  the  towns  is  entrusted  to  a  sur- 
veyor, and  is  comprised  in  measuring  and  staking  out  a 
certain  number  of  streets  at  stated  distances  apart,  run- 
ning north  and  south,  and  east  and  west,  and  then  prepar- 
ing a  "  plat  "  of  the  same,  on  which  the  blocks  are  divided 
into  lots  which  are  numbered,  and  sold  to  the  highest 
bidder.  No  regard  is  paid  to  the  topography  of  the 
ground ;  no  reference  is  had  to  future  interests  or  neces- 
sities of  business  or  pleasure  ;  no  effort  is  made  to  secure 
the  preservation  of  natural  features  which  in  time  might 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


79 


be  invaluable  as  a  means  of  giving  to  the  place  a  distinct 
and  unique  character.  Even  the  certainty  that  where 
there  is  life  there  must  also  be  death,  is  never  recognized 
by  such  previous  provision  of  a  properly  arranged  place 
of  burial  as  would  seem  simply  consistent  with  a  decent 
sense  of  propriety.  In  short,  there  is  not  the  slightest 
recognition  of  the  existence  of  such  an  art  as  landscape 
architecture.  On  the  line  of  every  railroad  which  pene- 
trates the  new  regions  of  the  West  this  mechanical  pro- 
cess of  manufacturing  and  selling  towns  is  going  on,  and 
year  after  year  they  are  becoming  forever  crystalized  in 
their  angular  forms  by  the  advent  of  purchasers  to  whom 
the  deeds  are  passed. 

Of  course  "  nobody  is  to  blame."  The  railroad  com- 
panies must  regard  the  interests  of  the  stockholders, 
which  require  a  rapid  sale  and  settlement  of  the  lands,  to 
secure  which  they  must  be  put  at  the  lowest  possible  price, 
and  that  can  only  be  done  by  the  wholesale  process  of 
manufacture  which  has  been  described.  The  first  pur- 
chasers are  rarely  of  a  class  to  appreciate  any  esthetic 
advantages  which  might  be  secured,  and  still  less  would 
they  be  willing  to  pay  for  possible  benefits  to  their  suc- 
cessors, and  if  purchasers  would  decline  to  pay  the 
increased  cost  of  having  their  towns  made  to  order  and 
fitted  tastefully  to  the  situation,  the  proprietors  must 
provide  the  machine-made  article ;  and  thus,  as  in  other 
branches  of  manufacture,  the  best  quality  is  driven  from 
the  market. 

Nevertheless  the  fact  remains,  that  unless  a  change  of 
the  present  system  is  brought  about,  the  next  century  will 


8o 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


behold  a  continued  series  of  towns  dotting  the  whole 
region  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Pacific  constructed  on 
the  one  invariable  rectangular  pattern.  Throughout  all 
varieties  of  natural  scenery;  the  boundless  plain;  the 
picturesque  bluffs,  commanding  gorgeous  views  of  lake 
or  river  scenery ;  the  sublime  ranges  of  mountains,  glit- 
tering with  snow-clad  peaks,  smiling  with  green  and 
fertile  valleys,  frowning  with  deep  canons ;  cities,  towns 
and  villages  are  to  be  everywhere  the  same  except  in 
size.  It  is  idle  to  say  that  "  these  matters  will  regulate 
themselves."  They  have  not  as  yet  given  such  evidence 
of  a  desire  for  something  better,  as  is  indicated  by  a  con- 
sciousness of  present  error;  as  witness  San  Francisco, 
laid  out  in  squares  without  the  slightest  reference  to  the 
inequalities  of  her  site ;  witness  Denver,  laid  out  in 
squares  on  a  gracefully  rounded  hill,  commanding  such  a 
mountain  view  as  is  worth  crossing  the  Atlantic  to  see, 
but  of  which  no  entire  view  can  be  obtained  from  any 
one  point  within  the  city  ;  whereas  if  a  fine  boulevard 
had  been  arranged  circling  the  hill,  it  would  for  all  future 
time  have  furnished  so  magnificent  a  drive,  and  such  a 
site  for  residences,  commanding  the  whole  mountain 
chain  from  Long's  to  Pike's  Peak  as  would  have  given  a 
distinct  character  to  the  city,  and  would  have  brought 
more  wealth  to  it  —  and  what  is  better,  more  men  and 
women  of  refined  taste  and  culture, —  than  all  the 
temples  of  mammon  which  are  established  forever  on 
the  site;  and  witness  the  multitudes  of  towns  laid  out  in 
squares  on  the  bottoms  and  bluffs  of  the  Mississippi  and 
Missouri  rivers,  the  founders  of  which  have  bequeathed 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


81 


to  all  future  generations  of  inhabitants  a  legacy  of  tax- 
ation, to  preserve  the  hideousness  of  the  original  outrage 
on  common  sense  and  natural  beauty,  when  a  proper 
adaptation  of  the  streets  and  subdivisions  to  the  natural 
shape  of  the  ground,  would  have  made  of  the  now 
unsightly  bluffs  the  most  striking  and  attractive  feature 
in  the  general  aspect  of  the  town. 

Only  a  few  years  since  the  beautiful  island  which 
divides  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony  could  have  been  secured 
by  the  thriving  city  of  Minneapolis,  which  overlooks  it, 
for  a  trifling  sum,  and  would  have  made  a  park  of  a  per- 
fectly unique  and  rarely  attractive  character,  but  the 
opportunity  was  lost  and  is  now  never  alluded  to  but 
with  regret. 

Day  after  day  is  bringing  similar  opportunities  and 
silently  offering  them  for  our  acceptance.  No  naming 
advertisements  set  forth  their  merits  ;  no  solicitations  are 
made  to  us  to  secure  them.  We  have  but  to  reach  out 
our  hands,  and  they  are  given  to  us  "without  money  and 
without  price."  But  the  solemn  procession  never  stops 
or  falters  in  its  silent  course,  and  if  we  miss  the  auspicious 
hour,  the  chance  is  gone  forever.  We  may  cast  our  long- 
ing eyes  upon  its  retreating  form,  and  curse  our  own 
blindness  and  stupidity,  but  it  is  as  utterly  beyond  recall 
as  the  day  in  whose  arms  it  was  borne. 

It  may  be  said  that  it  canrioT  be  foretold  at  the  outset 
what  is  to  be  the  size  of  a  town,  or  what  will  constitute 
its  principal  branches  of  business  or  manufacture,  without 
which  knowledge  it  is  impossible  to  adapt  its  arrangement 
to  its  possible  necessities.    I  have  elsewhere  conceded 

6 


82 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


this,  in  saying  that  some  of  the  problems  involved  can 
only  be  approximately  or  conjecturally  answered.  The 
art  of  town  arrangement  is  one  which  has  as  yet  had  com- 
paratively little  opportunity  of  being  reduced  to  fixed 
laws,  and  the  responsibility  devolves  upon  us  in  connec- 
tion with  the  work  we  have  in  hand,  of  developing  those 
laws  and  reducing  them  so  far  as  may  be  to  a  system. 
Ought  we  not  to  deem  it  a  privilege  that  the  oppor- 
tunity is  afforded  us  of  establishing  the  principles  of  an 
art,  which  in  the  application  we  are  enabled  by  modern 
science  to  make  of  its  practice,  should  outrank  in  grandeur, 
and  capacity  of  sublime  and  beautiful  combinations,  the 
utmost  efforts  of  those  which  have  heretofore  monopolized 
the  title  of  fine  arts  ?  For  surely  this  is  not  claiming  too 
much  for  an  art  whose  possible  compass  may  include  the 
grandest  features  of  natural  scenery,  and  the  noblest 
specimens  of  architectural  skill,  as  mere  ingredients,  the 
harmonious  blending  of  which  for  the  development  of  their 
best  effects,  is  the  province  of  the  landscape  architect. 

Certainly  no  people  ever  before  possessed  such  facilities 
as  are  placed  in  our  hands  for  carrying  through  to  a  suc- 
cessful result  a  pre-arranged  plan  of  town  construction, 
and  no  people  ever  before  had  such  control  of  all  the 
requisite  material  for  the  purpose.  We  have  our  choice 
of  sites  in  a  virgin  region,  comprising  every  variety  of  soil, 
climate,  and  topographical  character. 

Wherever  a  railroad  is  opened  all  the  labor-saving 
machinery,  and  all  the  comforts,  necessities,  and  luxuries 
of  civilized  life  may  be  at  once  introduced.  Mills,  shops, 
factories,  machinery  and  operatives,  with  houses  for  them 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


to  live  in,  may  be  delivered  to  order  at  any  given  point, 
and  indeed  are  ready  and  waiting  to  present  themselves 
at  any  point  which  offers  sufficient  attractions ;  and  the 
question  is  certainly  worthy  of  consideration,  whether  a 
judiciously  prepared  design,  adapted  to  the  natural  fea- 
tures of  the  situation,  and,  so  far  as  a  judgment  might  be 
formed,  to  the  probable  necessities  of  the  inhabitants, 
might  not  in  itself  constitute  a  very  powerful  attraction. 

It  is  surely  not  impossible,  on  an  extended  line  of  rail- 
road, to  fix  upon  localities  possessing  natural  advantages 
of  such  a  character,  and  bearing  such  relation  to  the  sur- 
rounding country,  as  must  render  their  future  attainment 
of  civic  importance  almost  a  matter  of  certainty,  and  it 
would  certainly  tend  to  promote  the  object,  if  provision 
were  made  for  future  necessities  by  the  preparation  of  a 
design  of  arrangement  which  should  secure  the  most  econo- 
mical and  convenient  attainment  of  the  objects  which  are 
of  primary  importance,  and  at  the  same  time  the  best 
esthetic  effect  of  which  the  natural  features  were  suscepti- 
ble. It  certainly  would  operate  as  a  strong  inducement 
to  attract  immigrants  if  such  a  plan  were  published,  and 
they  could  see  for  themselves  that  their  future  wants  and 
comfort  had  been  provided  for,  and  while  the  enterprising 
and  industrious  classes  who  would  be  the  first  inhabitants, 
would  develop  the  resources  which  would  give  vital  energy 
to  the  population,  the  provision  which  had  been  reasona- 
bly made  for  taking  such  advantage  of  natural  features  as 
would  give  to  the  place  a  distinct  character  of  refined 
elegance,  by  exhibiting  an  appreciation  of  them  which 
would  never  be  attained  by  a  vulgar  mind,  would  not  fail 


84 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


to  attract  as  residents  or  visitors  the  class  of  people  whose 
culture  and  intelligence  can  alone  confer  upon  a  commu- 
nity the  sterling  stamp  which  gives  assured  value  to 
wealth. 

As  a  means  of  giving  a  generally  attractive  character  to 
the  country  at  large,  the  importance  of  securing  a  tasteful 
arrangement  of  the  smaller  towns  and  rural  villages,  is 
perhaps  of  even  more  importance  than  that  of  the  large 
cities. 

Sir  Uvedale  Price,  in  his  Essay  on  the  Picturesque, 
remarks : 

"An  obvious  and  easy  method  of  arranging  a  village  is 
to  place  the  houses  on  two  parallel  lines,  to  make  them  of 
the  same  size  and  shape,  and  at  equal  distances  from  each 
other.  Such  a  methodical  arrangement  saves  all  further 
thought  and  invention ;  but  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say 
that  nothing  can  be  more  formal  or  insipid.  Other  regular 
plans  of  a  better  kind  have  been  proposed;  but  it  seems 
to  me  that  symmetry,  which  in  cities,  and  generally  in  all 
the  higher  styles  of  architecture  produces  such  grand 
effects,  is  less  suited  to  humbler  scenes  and  buildings. 

"  The  characteristic  beauties  of  a  village,  as  distinct 
from  a  city,  are  intricacy,  variety  and  play  of  outline ;  and 
whatever  is  done  should  be  with  a  view  to  promote  those 
objects.  The  houses,  therefore,  should  be  disposed  with 
that  view,  and  should  differ  as  much  in  their  disposition 
from  those  of  a  regularly  built  city,  as  the  trees  which  are 
meant  to  have  the  character  of  natural  groups  should  from 
those  of  an  avenue.  Wherever  symmetry  and  exact  uni- 
formity are  introduced,  those  objects  which  produce  a 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


35 


marked  intricacy  and  variety  must  in  general  be  sacrificed. 
In  an  avenue,  for  instance,  sudden  inequalities  of  ground, 
with  wild  groups  of  trees  and  bushes,  which  are  the  orna- 
ments of  forest  scenery,  would  not  accord  with  the  pre- 
vailing character.  In  the  same  manner  where  a  regular 
street  or  a  square  is  to  be  built,  all  inequalities  of  ground, 
all  old  buildings,  however  picturesque,  will  injure  that 
symmetry  of  the  whole,  which  must  not,  except  on  extra- 
ordinary occasions,  be  sacrificed  to  particular  detail. 
Now,  in  a  village  all  details,  whether  of  inequality  of 
ground,  of  trees  and  bushes,  or  of  old  buildings,  are  not 
only  in  character,  but  serve  as  indications  where  and  in 
what  manner  new  buildings  may  be  placed  so  as  at  once 
to  promote  both  variety  and  connection. 

"  There  is  no  scene  where  neatness  and  picturesqueness, 
simplicity  and  intricacy,  can  be  so  happily  blended  as  in 
a  village." 

These  suggestions  are  applicable  to  multitudes  of  cases 
where  new  villages  are  to  be  laid  out  on  sites  comprising 
inequalities  of  surface,  or  natural  features  of  an  attractive 
character  which  might  be  made  to  contribute  incalculably 
to  the  beauty  of  the  town  by  conferring  upon  it  the 
expression  of  rural  quiet  and  natural  ease,  which  consti- 
tute the  charm  of  such  a  place,  in  distinction  from  the 
necessary  formality  of  the  city. 

But  what  would  Sir  Uvedale,  or  any  man  of  cultivated 
taste,  think  of  the  "  formality  and  insipidity  "  of  a  western 
village,  in  which  so  far  as  possible  every  inequality  of 
surface  is  made  smooth,  every  street  made  straight,  the 
houses  placed  on  a  line,  and  the  natural  growth  of  trees 


86  LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


eradicated  in  order  to  replant  in  formal  rows  ?  And  if  in 
travelling  through  the  country  he  found  everywhere  a 
repetition  of  the  same  thing,  every  village  a  miniature  city, 
differing  from  its  neighbors  only  in  size,  or  in  greater  or 
less  display  of  pretentious  public  or  private  buildings, 
might  he  not  justly  feel  the  utter  deficiency  of  an  appre- 
ciative sense  of  the  truly  beautiful  in  nature,  and  be 
painfully  impressed  with  the  fact  that  a  most  important 
element  of  popular  education  was  entirely  ignored  ? 

That  such  is  the  impression  made  upon  every  man  of 
cultivated  taste  is  an  easily  ascertained  fact.  Of  course 
the  rule  is  not  without  exceptions,  and  moreover  there  are 
very  few  communities  in  which  more  or  less  individuals 
may  not  be  found,  who  by  precept  and  example  are  exert- 
ing a  constant  and  powerful  influence  in  educating  the 
popular  taste  to  a  love  of  the  really  beautiful  instead  of 
mere  tawdry  or  finical  displays. 

The  apology  always  offered  is  the  poverty  of  a  new  set- 
tlement and  the  demand  for  all  the  means  at  their  dispo- 
sal to  meet  the  expenses  of  absolute  neceessity. 

But  all  the  wind  is  taken  out  of  that  sail  by  the  fact 
that  true  taste  would  be  far  less  expensive  than  the  present 
system,  because  it  would  leave  undisturbed  such  natural 
features  as  could  be  preserved  without  actual  inconven- 
ience, and  thus  save  much  of  what  is  commonly  the  most 
costly  of  the  works  of  public  improvement.  The  idea 
that  an  artistic  arrangement  is  necessarily  costly,  comes 
from  the  almost  universal  misapprehension  of  the  meaning 
of  the  term,  which  to  most  minds  conveys  only  the  idea 
of  elaborate  artificial  decoration,  when  in  reality  the  art 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


87 


consists  in  the  development  and  tasteful  adaptation  of  the 
natural  features  of  the  place  to  the  objects  to  which  they 
are  to  be  devoted.  The  first  cost  of  designing  such 
arrangement  is  more  than  that  of  the  rectangular  system ; 
but  the  cost  of  the  latter  in  its  execution,  and  the  inci- 
dental expenses  attendant  on  and  resulting  from  it,  is 
often  tenfold  what  the  former  would  have  been.  Is  it  not 
time  that  an  effort  be  made  to  instill  correct  ideas  of  what 
constitutes  beauty,  both  by  precept  and  example  ? 

We  boast  of  our  system  of  public  education ;  but  the 
lessons  which  are  learned  in  school  comprise  only  the 
rudiments  of  the  education  which  goes  to  make  up  the 
popular  character.  In  how  many  Western  towns  may 
be  seen  a  huge  building  which  the  inhabitants  point  out 
with  pride  as  the  college  or  university,  with  some  high 
sounding  title  attached,  and  which  on  examination  is 
found  to  be  only  one  wing  of  an  edifice,  the  rest  of  which 
is  still  in  the  clouds,  but  which  is  expected  to  confer  a 
literary  odor  upon  the  place,  and  generally  to  promote  its 
prosperity.  The  original  endowment  has  been  exhausted 
in  constructing  this  fraction  of  the  building,  which  of 
course  is  only  a  deformity  while  standing  by  itself.  No 
means  are  left  for  improving  the  grounds  around  it,  which 
are  generally  bare  and  neglected.  Does  it  never  occur 
to  principals,  teachers  or  boards  of  education,  that  if  not 
inculcating  a  lesson  that  is  directly  evil  by  the  example 
of  extravagant  outlay  for  an  ostentatious  object  which  is 
not  half  accomplished,  they  are  at  least  neglecting  one  of 
the  most  important  and  valuable  means  of  educating  the 
tastes  of  their  pupils,  by /suffering  them   to  become 


88 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


familiar  with  slovenliness  and  disregard  of  all  effort  to 
give  an  attractive  expression  to  the  place  where  the  work 
of  education  is  conducted?  No  impression  upon  the 
youthful  mind  exerts  a  more  powerful  and  lasting  influ- 
ence than  that  which  is  made  by  daily  familiar  inter- 
course with  scenes  of  simple  natural  beauty,  and  the 
man  whose  boyhood  was  passed  amid  such  scenes  will 
find  that  he  recurs  to  them  in  after  life  with  a  keener 
sense  of  their  loveliness,  as  he  contrasts  them  with  the 
magnificence  and  ostentatious  display  which  mark  a  more 
artificial  condition  of  life. 

Whatever  may  be  thought,  however,  of  pre-arranged 
designs  for  proposed  towns,  the  importance  of  an  early 
attention  to  suburban  improvements,  is  one  which  cannot 
be  too  strongly  urged  upon  multitudes  of  already  thriving 
and  rapidly  growing  cities  throughout  the  West.  The 
opportunities  which  are  often  available  of  attaining 
possession  of  tracts  of  land,  by  the  improvement  of 
which  the  beauty  and  attractive  interest  of  the  city  can 
be  incalculably  increased,  while  at  the  same  time  a  lucra- 
tive return  is  secured  in  the  form  of  increased  valuation 
of  taxable  property  should  not  be  suffered  to  escape. 

The  increase  of  population  and  consequent  increased 
value  of  real  estate  in  Western  cities  is  a  matter  which 
may  be  said  to  be  almost  as  certain  as  the  laws  of 
nature.  Different  ratios  of  growth  of  course  exist,  but  it 
would  be  hard  to  find  a  town  of  10,000  inhabitants  that 
is  likely  to  remain  stationary  and  easy  to  designate  many 
which  will  not  stop  short  of  five  or  ten  times  that  num- 
ber.   Every  man  who  has  lived  a  few  years  in  the  West 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


89 


can  tell  of  opportunities  he  has  missed  of  making  invest- 
ments in  land  which  would  have  proved  very  profitable 
if  he  had  only  had  faith  that  the  ratio  of  growth  would 
be  maintained,  yet  the  infidelity  is  not  overcome,  and  the 
chances  continue  to  slip  by  unimproved. 

And  so  with  cities,  not  one  of  which  but  would  now 
pay  largely  to  secure  opportunities  for  public  improve- 
ments which  might  once  have  been  had  for  a  song,  but 
whose  purchase  would  then  have  seemed  a  wild  scheme. 

But  purchase  alone  is  not  enough.  If  simply  bought 
and  held  for  a  rise,  it  may  prevent  neighboring  occupa- 
tion, and  thus  depreciate  in  value.  Improvements  must 
be  added  of  such  character  as  will  attract  occupants  by 
giving  evidence  that  a  broad  and  liberal  spirit  has  been 
exerted  in  providing  for  their  welfare  and  comfort. 

Hardly  any  investment  is  safer  for  capitalists  than  the 
judicious  purchase  and  tasteful  improvement  of  attractive 
sites  for  suburban  additions,  and  such  investments  are 
becoming  common  by  individuals  and  companies  in  the 
vicinity  of  many  thriving  cities,  whose  governing  powers 
should  second  the  enterprise  in  corresponding  spirit  by 
extending  connecting  avenues,  and  thus  as  it  were  appro- 
priating them  as  integral  portions  of  a  grand  system  of 
elegant  embellishment. 

I  have  endeavored  to  convey  my  idea  of  the  scope  of 
the  art  of  landscape  architecture,  and  I  do  not  think  my 
general  premises  will  be  disputed.  It  cannot  be  denied 
that  one  mode  of  adapting  the  arrangement  of  a  city,  a 
town  or  a  private  estate  to  the  natural  features  of  its 
situation,  may  be  preferable  to  another,  as  a  means  of 


9° 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE. 


securing  the  utmost  convenience,  in  the  most  economical 
as  well  as  the  most  attractive  and  graceful  manner.  It 
cannot  be  denied  that  the  infinitely  varying  circum- 
stances of  the  topography  of  different  situations,  must 
involve  a  corresponding  variety  of  arrangement  in  order 
to  secure  the  best  for  each.  It  cannot  be  denied  that 
the  design  of  such  arrangement  demands  the  exercise  of 
skill,  judgment  and  taste,  equal  at  least  to  that  required 
for  the  architecture  of  buildings.  It  seems  almost  absurd 
that  such  a  course  of  reasoning  should  be  necessary  in 
order  to  prove  the  existence  of  such  an  art  as  landscape 
architecture,  but  while  we  continue  to  ignore  its  existence 
and  to  go  on  blindly  and  without  method,  in  the  perform- 
ance of  works  which  obviously  should  be  based  directly 
upon  its  principles  —  and  with  such  an  opportunity  as  no 
nation  ever  before  enjoyed  of  developing  the  theory  and 
practice  of  the  art  —  am  I  not  right  in  asserting  its  claims 
and  demanding,  if  only  for  the  sake  of  our  future  reputa- 
tion, that  they  should  be  recognized? 

The  statement  and  solution  of  the  problems  involved 
in  the  practical  application  of  the  art,  on  the  scale  sug- 
gested would  be  inappropriate  to  my  present  object. 
The  scientific  discussion  of  the  subject,  (if  the  man 
could  be  found  who  is  competent  to  it)  would  require  a 
volume  of  such  compass  as  would  be  likely  to  repel  the 
class  of  readers  I  have  most  desired  to  attract.  I  have 
purposely  avoided  such  statements  of  details  as  may  be 
found  elsewhere,  and  have  hoped  only  to  call  attention 
to  the  momentous  duties  devolving  upon  us,  which  so  far 
as  I  am  aware  have  never  been  more  than  vaguely 


LANDSCAPE  ARCHITECTURE.  cji 


alluded  to,  but  for  the  performance  of  which  we  are  to  be 
held  responsible  for  all  coming  time ;  and  to  prove  the 
existence  of  laws  which  must  be  observed  if  we  would 
avoid  the  errors  or  secure  the  advantages  whose  effects 
for  evil  or  for  good  are  alike  incalculable, —  alike  within 
our  control  up  to  the  moment  of  execution,  and  alike 
unchangeable  thenceforth  and  forever. 


Forest  Planting 


Great  Plains. 


FOREST  PLANTING  ON  THE 
GREAT  PLAINS. 


UBLIC  attention  has  been  so  frequently  called 
of  late  years  to  the  subject  of  the  wasteful  des- 
truction of  our  native  forests,  and  the  necessity 
of  adopting  energetic  measures  of  relief  by  means  of 
an  extended  system  of  forest  planting,  that  it  is  unneces- 
sary to  attempt  to  set  forth  its  importance  in  stronger 
language  than  has  been  repeatedly  used  in  scientific 
essays,  in  agricultural  addresses,  and  in  congressional 
speeches. 

I  propose,  therefore,  to  avail  myself  of  the  evidence  of 
well  known  authorities,  in  proof  of  the  necessity  of  action 
and  of  the  penalties  &vokcd  in  delay,  referring  those  who 
wish  for  more  detailed  information  to  the  publications 
from  whose  pages  I  shall  quote,  and  then  offering  such 
suggestions  as  to  measures  of  relief  as  seem  to  me  to  be 
worthy  of  consideration. 

In  the  well  known  "  Report  on  the  Trees  and  Shrubs 
of  Massachusetts,"  by  George  B.  Emerson,  published  by 
order  of  the  Legislature  in  1846,  the  following  passage 
occurs : 

"  The  importance  of  the  forests  as  furnishing  materials  for  ship- 
building, house-building,  and  numerous  other  arts,  is  so  obvious  that 

95 


96 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


it  must  occur  to  every  one  ;  and  yet  there  is  danger  that  in  many 
places,  from  false  motives  of  immediate  economy,  no  provision  will 
be  made  for  the  wants  of  future  generations.  It  is  not  easy  to  estimate 
the  value  of  the  wood  used  in  house-building.  The  thousands  of  tons 
of  timber,  boards,  clapboards  and  shingles,  used  in  such  improvements, 
are  not  put  on  record.  As  to  ship-building,  we  have  some  data.  The 
returns  from  the  various  towns  in  the  State,  made  in  1837,  show  that 
the  average  annual  value  of  ships  built  in  the  five  preceding  years  was 
$1,370,649.  *  *  *  The  effect  of  the  wasteful  destruction  of  the  for- 
est trees  is  already  visible.  A  very  large  proportion  of  the  materials  of 
ship-building,  house-building,  and  manufactures,  are  now  brought  from 
the  other  States.  Every  year  we  are  more  dependant  on  Maine  and 
New  York,  and  some  of  the  Southern  States,  not  only  for  ship-timber 
and  lumber  for  house-building,  but  for  materials  for  tanning  and 
dyeing,  carriage-building,  basket-making,  last-making,  furniture, 
agricultural  implements,  barrel-staves,  and  wooden-ware  of  all  descrip- 
tions. Even  these  foreign  resources  are  fast  failing  us.  Within  the 
last  quarter  of  a  century  the  forests  of  Maine  and  New  York,  from 
which  we  draw  our  largest  supplies,  have  disappeared  more  rapidly 
than  those  of  Massachusetts  ever  did.  In  a  quarter  of  a  century  more, 
at  this  rate,  the  supp'y  will  be  entirely  cut  off." 

The  warning  embodied  in  these  words  was  suffered  to 
pass  unheeded.  The  quarter  of  a  century  has  passed  and 
the  prediction  has  been  more  than  fulfilled.  The  rate  of 
demand  on  which  it  was  based  has  increased  to  a  degree 
which  would  then  have  seemed  incredible ;  and  while  we 
have  still  to  regret  the  want  of  any  record  by  which  an 
estimate  can  be  formed  of  the  amount  of  timber  annually 
drawn  from  the  forests,  or  of  the  probable  duration  of  the 
present  sources  of  supply,  yet  a  consideration  of  the  single 
item  of- the  timber  required  for  railroad  construction, 
(which  at  the  time  the  above  was  written  was  not  of  suffi- 
cient importance  to  demand  notice),  and  give  a  moment's 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


97 


thought  to  what  it  must  be  in  the  not  distant  future,  we 
cannot  fail  to  be  convinced  that  the  work  of  providing 
for  it  has  become  a  matter  of  national  importance  which 
it  were  worse  than  folly  to  postpone. 

Few  persons  not  concerned  in  railroad  construction 
have  any  realizing  sense  of  the  enormous  draft  it  involves 
upon  the  natural  supplies  of  timber,  and  few  even  of 
those  so  engaged  have  considered,  as  it  deserves,  the 
problem  of  the  future  supply  for  the  vast  region  which  is 
now  opened  to  us  between  the  Missouri  and  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  a  country  rich  in  various  natural  resources, 
but  utterly  destitute  of  timber,  the  one  thing  needful  for 
the  development  of  its  agricultural  and  mineral  wealth. 

Upwards  of  50,000  miles  of  railroad  are  now  in  actual 
use  in  the  United  States. 

That  their  multiplication  must  go  on  in  a  constantly 
increasing  ratio  is  as  certain  as  that  the  population  of 
the  country  must  continue  to  increase.  Every  mile  of 
railroad  requires  2,700  ties,  which  in  the  West  are  mostly 
of  oak,  cedar  or  chestnut,  and  are  worth  at  least  fifty 
cents  each,  or  $1,350  per  mile.  They  are  generally  made 
of  comparatively  young  wood,  that  is  of  trees  not  more 
than  eight  or  ten  inches  in  diameter,  requiring  only  to  be 
hewn  flat  on  the  upper  and  under  surface.  The  average 
number  of  ties  cut  from  a  tree  of  this  size  is  probably 
not  more  than  two ;  but  allowing  it  to  be  three,  which  it 
cannot  exceed,  we  find  the  number  of  trees  required  to 
furnish  ties  for  the  railroads  already  constructed  to  be 
45,000,000. 

7 


98 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


Estimating  the  yield  of  a  single  acre  at  200  trees, 
which  is  a  large  allowance  for  the  average  yield  of  native 
woods,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  produce  of  225,000  acres 
will  be  required  to  furnish  ties  for  the  existing  roads,  and 
as  the  duration  of  ties  is  not  more  than  eight  years,  it 
follows  that  the  above  area  must  be  stripped  as  often  as 
that  to  furnish  simply  the  first  article  required  in  its  con- 
struction after  the  road  is  graded.  It  is  true  that  a 
better  economy  is  beginning  to  prevail  in  some  parts  of 
the  West,  where  railroad  companies  have  purchased  large 
tracts  of  forest  and  established  mills  for  sawing  the 
timber,  so  as  to  avoid  the  wasteful  necessity  of  using  only 
young  timber. 

The  fact  of  the  adoption  of  such  a  measure  of  economy 
is  in  itself  an  evidence  of  the.  sense  of  future  necessities 
which  impelled  it.  A  consideration  of  future  wants  will 
show  that  much  more  efficient  measures  are  required 
than  the  mere  economizing  of  present  supplies,  in  order 
to  meet  the  enormous  demand,  of  which  the  item  I  have 
selected  for  illustration  is  really  one  of  minor  importance, 
but  one  whose  amount  can  be  more  readily  expressed 
than  most  others.  A  moment's  reflection  will  show  that 
it  comprises  but  a  small  portion  of  what  is  required  for 
railroad  use,  in  comparison  with  the  demand  for  bridges, 
buildings,  fences  and  rolling  stock.  And  when  it  is  con- 
sidered that  all  this  enormous  consumption  is  but  a 
small  fraction  of  the  aggregate  required  for  the  infinite 
variety  of  uses  to  which  it  is  applied,  it  does  not  seem 
surprising  that  the  supply  is  already  approaching  an 
estimable  period  of  duration.    The  following  statement 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


99 


is  condensed  from  a  very  interesting  essay,  published  in 
the  transactions  of  the  Illinois  Horticultural  Society : 

"  Timber,  both  hard  and  soft,  is  rapidly  disappearing  from  our 
forests.  At  the  present  rate  of  denudation  it  will  be  but  compara- 
tively a  short  time  until  its  price  will  be  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
general  industries  for  which  it  is  now  used.  European  countries 
have  been  drawing  for  years  upon  American  forests  for  a  large  part  of 
their  supplies.  Over  800,000  acres  of  timber  are  annually  cut  in  the 
three  great  States  of  Michigan,  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota,  while  but 
150,000  acres  are  annually  planted  in  all  the  States.  In  1869,  1,750,- 
000,000  feet  of  lumber  were  sent  to  the  lake  ports  of  Lake  Michigan 
from  the  forests  of  Michigan  and  Wisconsin." 

Col.  J.  W.  Foster,  in  his  very  valuable  and  interesting 
work  on  the  "  Mississippi  Valley,"  says  : 

"  In  the  United  States  the  destruction  of  the  forest  is  going  on  at 
an  accelerated  pace.  The  lumber  trees  of  Maine,  in  accesible  posi- 
tions, are  nearly  exhausted,  and  twenty  years  more  will  accomplish 
the  same  result  with  regard  to  the  extensive  pineries  of  Michigan  and 
Wisconsin.  The  white  pine  is  the  most  valuable  lumber  tree  of 
America.  The  ease  with  which  it  is  wrought  ;  its  freedom  as  com- 
pared with  most  trees,  from  shrinking,  swelling  and  warping  ;  and  its 
durability  when  properly  protected  by  paint,  make  it  the  principal 
tree  employed  in  the  construction  of  a  vast  majority  of  houses,  and 
even  fences  and  sidewalks.  To  one  who  realizes  how  rapidly  the 
sources  of  supply  are  becoming  exhausted,  and  the  prodigality  with 
which  it  is  used,  it  cannot  but  be  disheartening.  It  is  a  tree  of  slow 
growth,  and  the  surface  on  which  it  grows,  when  disrobed,  is  unfit  for 
profitable  agriculture.  The  annual  receipts  of  pine  lumber  at  Chicago 
alone  are  in  excess  of  730,000,000  feet,  400,000,000  shingles,  and 
24,000,000  of  lath.  Possessing  a  material  within  easy  reach  and  on 
the  banks  of  a  canal,  known  as  the  Athens  limestone,  unequalled  for 
flagging  and  building,  and  having  a  river  whose  dredgings  are  capa- 
ble of  conversion  into  brick,  it  is  a  singular  fact  which  strikes  every 


IOO 


FOREST  PLANTIA  G. 


stranger  within  her  gates,  that  Chicago  should  exhibit  such  an  extent 
of  wooden  tenements  and  plank  sidewalks  —  structures  of  the  most 
superficial  character,  which  must  soon  give  way  to  those  more  solid 
and  enduring.  The  products  of  the  lake  pineries  are  distributed 
over  half  a  continent.  From  them  are  built  the  farm  houses  of  the 
pioneers  on  the  solitary  prairies,*  and  the  bridges  which  span  the 
waters  of  the  Kansas  and  the  Platte. 

"  The  destruction  of  hard  wood  timber  is  going  on  at  a  pace 
equally  as  rapid.  The  railways  require  annually  in  construction  and 
maintenance  at  least  10,000,000  of  ties.  Nothing  strikes  the  emi- 
grant from  the  Atlantic  slope,  on  returning  after  years  of  absence,  so 
forcibly  as  to  see  those  hills  which  in  his  youth  were  forest  crowned, 
now  bare  and  desolate,  and  the  streams  in  which  he  was  accustomed 
to  fish  dwindled  into  mere  trickling  rills. f  The  Pacific  railroads 
which  traverse  for  long  distances  the  valleys  of  the  Kaw  and  Platte, 
have  consumed  in  their  construction  nearly  every  stick  of  timber,  and 
in  four  years  will  have  consumed  all  the  firewood.  The  beautiful 
black  walnuts  of  the  Kaw  valley,  fit  for  gunstocks  and  cabinet  ware, 
have  been  remorselessly  sacrificed  to  these  base  purposes." 

I  cannot  better  conclude  the  evidence  on  this  branch 
of  the  subject  than  by  introducing  the  following  report  of 
a  committee  on  Forest  Culture,  which  was  read  at  the  last 
meeting  of  the  National  Agricultural  Association  in  St. 
Louis : 

At  the  recent  meeting  of  the  National  Agricultural  Association  in 

*In  journeying  last  summer  on  the  plains  between  Lincoln,  Neb.,  and  Fort 
Kearney,  I  asked  a  new  settler  at  whose  house  I  stopped  to  dine,  where  he  got 
the  lumber  for  his  house,  not  a  tree  being  in  sight.  The  answer  was  :  "  I  ordered 
it  from  Chicago  to  Lincoln  by  rail,  and  hauled  it  out  from  there  (thirty  miles)  with 
my  team."  H.  W.  S.  C. 

tin  confirmation  of  this  statement  I  may  mention  that  on  a  recent  visit  to  a 
town  on  the  Nashua  River  in  Massachusetts,  I  was  recurring  to  the  delight  I  used 
to  experience  when  a  boy,  more  than  forty  years  ago,  in  witnessing  the  wild  scenes 
of  the  annual  freshets  when  the  intervale  land  on  each  side  of  the  river  was 
converted  into  an  angry  flood,  when  I  was  astonished  to  learn  that  nothing  of  the 
kind  had  been  known  for  twenty  or  thirty  years  past  —  doubtless  the  result  of  the 
stripping  off  of  the  forests,  to  which  Mr.  Foster  so  feelingly  alludes. 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


101 


St.  Louis,  a  report  of  which  we  find  in  the  Missouri  Democrat,  the 
following  striking  paper  was  read,  having  been  prepared  by  R.  S. 
Elliott,  Esq. ,  the  well  known  Industrial  Agent  of  the  Kansas  Pacific 
Railroad  Company : 

REPORT. 

The  Committee  on  Forest  Culture  beg  leave  to  report  as  follows  : 

The  forests  of  the  continent  are  rapidly  passing  away.  Large  dis- 
tricts in  the  Atlantic  States  are  already  stripped  of  their  most  valuable 
timber.  In  less  than  twenty-five  years  the  accessible  forests  in  the 
region  of  the  great  lakes,  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
in  the  British  possessions  adjacent,  will  be  exhausted.  The  industrial 
progress  of  the  Southern  States  is  consuming  trees  both  deciduous 
and  evergreen  at  an  accelerating  rate.  In  the  Rocky  Mountain 
regions  (where  the  hard  woods  are  unknown)  the  pines,  spruces  and 
cedars  are  disappearing  before  the  farmer,  the  miner,  the  architect 
and  the  railroad  builder.  On  the  Pacific  coast,  the  immense  home 
demand,  ever  increasing,  together  with  the  exportations  to  England, 
France,  Australia,  China,  Japan,  South  America,  Mexico  and  the 
Pacific  Islands  foretell  the  exhaustion  of  the  California  timber  trees 
in  twenty  years  ;  and  those  available  in  Oregon  and  regions  north- 
ward within  a  comparatively  brief  period. 

The  demand  for  the  product  of  the  forest  constantly  increases. 
The  supply  constantly,  and  in  a  growing  ratio,  diminishes,  and  prices 
constantly  augment.  The  causes  now  in  operation,  and  daily  gaining 
strength,  can  have  but  one  effect,  that  of  exhausting  all  the  available 
sources  of  supply  within  the  lives  of  persons  now  in  existence. 

This  appalling  prospect,  the  view  of  which  becomes  more  vivid  the 
more  it  is  studied,  should  arouse  the  farmers,  land-owners  and  legis- 
lators. It  is  vital  to  the  future  welfare  of  our  people  that  the  repro- 
duction of  the  forests  should  at  once  begin,  not  on  a  small  scale  or  in 
few  localities,  but  in  large  measures  and  co-extensive  with  our  settle- 
ments. A  broad  statesmanship,  in  our  national  and  State  Legislature, 
should  at  once  take  up  the  subject,  and  deal  with  it  year  by  year  until 
the  great  work  shall  be  adequately  begun. 


102 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


The  few  and  hesitating  experiments  in  isolated  localities,  which 
have  been  made  in  the  growing  of  forest  trees,  have  no  significance  as 
far  as  the  general  supply  of  future  wants  is  concerned.  But  they  are 
of  inestimable  value  in  so  far  as  they  teach  the  ease  and  comparative 
rapidity  with  which  forest  trees,  useful  to  the  farm,  to  the  workshop 
and  to  the  railroad,  may  be  produced  ;  and  in  so  far  as  they  show 
that  the  agricultural  men  of  the  country  have  already  (in  advance  of 
the  men  in  high  political  life),  appreciated  the  necessities  of  the 
present  and  the  future.  They  are  also  of  value  in  demonstrating  that, 
however  remote  the  profit  of  forest  culture  may  have  been  heretofore 
considered,  it  is  yet  true  that  the  artificial  plantation  may  in  a  very 
few  years,  by  judicious  planting  at  first,  be  made  to  yield  current 
returns  equal  to  the  cost  of  planting  and  care. 

Modifications  and  ameliorations  of  climate,  due  to  the  destruction 
or  the  extension  of  forests,  have  begun  to  enlist  serious  consideration. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  beneficial  influence  of  the  forest  areas 
equal  in  aggregate  to  one-fourth  or  one-third  of  the  entire  area  of 
any  extensive  region.  But  however  important  climate  effects  may  be 
in  this  connection — however  desirable  it  may  be  that  the  crops  and 
animal  life  of  the  farm  should  enjoy  the  benefits  of  forest  influences 
and  shelter,  the  need  of  extensive  forest  planting  is  important  enough 
without  taking  into  consideration  its  effect  on  atmospheric  movements, 
temperature  and  rainfall.  The  store,  the  dwelling,  the  shop,  the 
factory,  the  railroad,  the  wharf,  the  warehouse  —  all  these  demand 
action  ;  demand  it  in  the  name  of  domestic  life,  of  farm  economy,  of 
commerce,  of  all  the  arts  of  our  civilization.  What  we  shall  save  in 
climate  by  preserving  forest  areas,  or  gain  by  their  extension,  is  just 
so  much  to  be  enjoyed  in  addition  to  other  compensations.  The  less 
violent  sweep  of  the  winds  in  Illinois,  as  compared  with  forty  or  fifty 
years  ago,  due  to  the  obstruction  caused  by  buildings,  hedges,  fences, 
orchards,  artificial  groves,  and  wind-breaks  on  her  prairies,  speak  to 
the  understanding  of  plain  men  more  forcibly  than  any  language  we 
could  use. 

There  may  be  those  who  regard  forest  planting  as  a  work  of 
mystery  and  grandeur,  beyond  the  reach  of  common  farmer.    This  is 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


a  mistaken  view.  Nearly  all  the  most  important  deciduous  trees  may 
be  grown  from  seed  as  readily  as  Indian  corn.  Of  many  species  the 
seed  may  be  sown  broadcast  and  harrowed  in,  if  the  planter  prefers 
to  use  the  seed  lavishly  rather  than  give  more  care.  The  seeds  of 
many  trees  may  be  planted  either  in  the  fall  or  spring,  as  may  be 
most  convenient.  Some  of  the  softer  wooded  trees  grow  from  cuttings 
as  readily  as  the  grape  ;  and  with  most  deciduous  trees,  the  seeds  or 
cuttings  may,  if  desired,  be  at  once  planted  where  the  trees  are  to 
stand.  Nor  need  the  most  unlettered  farmer  deny  himself  the  pleasure 
and  profit  of  the  conifers  and  evergreens.  The  plants,  furnished  at 
prices  which  are  insignificant  in  comparison  with  their  value,  are 
abundant  at  reliable  nurseries,  and  with  the  simple  precaution  of 
keeping  the  roots  moist,  and  proper  care  in  planting,  are  as  sure  to 
grow  as  any  other  tree  or  shrub. 

No  part  of  the  earth  is  blessed  with  a  greater  variety  of  useful  trees, 
both  of  the  hard  and  soft  wooded  kinds,  than  the  United  States  ;  and 
these  native  trees  can  all  be  readily  grown  in  artificial  plantations. 
It  is  not  alone  the  pines  and  spruces  and  cedars  that  make  up  our 
valuable  timber.  The  harder  wooded  trees  —  the  ash,  the  oak,  the 
hickories,  the  maples,  the  walnuts  and  the  chestnuts  —  of  which  we 
have  heretofore  been  so  lavish,  have  a  value  in  the  arts  that  no  figures 
can  estimate.  They  may  be  said  to  be  essential  to  the  continuance  of 
our  present  civilization.  New  forests  of  these  trees  must  be  grown, 
or  our  grandchildren  must  depart  from  our  modes  of  life.  West  of 
longitude  100  degrees  from  Greenwich,  the  material  of  a  common 
wagon  does  not  grow  on  the  continent,  and  we  are  fast  exhausting  it 
east  of  that  meridian.  Ohio  and  Indiana,  Kentucky  and  Missouri, 
have  girdled  and  burnt  hard  wood  trees  that  to-day  would  be  worth 
hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars.  If  failing  springs  and  protracted 
drouths  and  extremes  of  temperature  suggest  replanting,  their  people 
may  safely  rely  on  a  future  market,  more  certain  than  for  any  other 
product  of  the  soil. 

To  carry  out  the  views  embodied  in  this  report,  your  committee 
submit  the  following  resolutions  for  adoption  by  this  National  Agri- 
cultural Congress.  John  A.  Warden,  ) 

R.  S.  Elliott,        >  Committee. 

W   r    "Ft  a  n-a.  \ 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


THE  REMEDIES  SUGGESTED. 

Resolved.  I.  That  we  recommend  farmers  throughout  the  United 
States  to  plant  with  trees  their  hilly  or  other  waste  lands,  and  at  least 
ten  per  cent,  of  their  farms  with  trees,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  provide 
shelter  belts  or  clumps,  and  rapid  growth  and  useful  timber. 

2.  That  we  solicit  the  legislatures  of  the  several  States  to  pass  laws 
providing  bounties  for  planting  useful  trees,  encouraging  the  planting 
of  the  highways,  and  for  the  provision  of  State  nurseries  of  young 
timber  trees  ;  and  also  the  appointment  of  an  Arbor  Day  for  the 
annual  planting  of  trees,  as  has  already  been  done  in  the  State  of 
Nebraska. 

3.  That  we  ask  our  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  require,  so 
far  as  practicable,  that  hereafter  railroad  companies  and  settlers 
receiving  the  benefit  of  the  homestead  and  other  acts  donating  lands, 
shall  plant  with  timber  trees  one-tenth  of  the  lands  so  donated. 

Concerning  the  influence  of  forests  on  temperature, 
humidity,  etc.,  I  make  the  following  extracts  from  Marsh's 
"Man  and  Nature": 

"Sir  John  F.  W.  Herschel  enumerates  among  'the  influences 
unfavorable  to  rain,'  '  absence  of  vegetation,  especially  of  trees,'  and 
says :  '  This  is  no  doubt  one  of  the  reasons  of  the  extreme  aridity  of 
Spain.  The  hatred  of  a  Spaniard  toward  a  tree  is  proverbial.  Many 
districts  in  France  have  been  materially  injured  by  denudation  ;  and 
on  the  other  hand,  rain  has  become  more  frequent  in  Egypt  since  the 
more  vigorous  cultivation  of  the  palm  tree.'  " 

Barth  presents  the  following  view  of  the  subject : 
"  The  ground  in  the  forest,  as  well  as  the  atmospheric  stratum  over 
it,  continues  humid  after  the  woodless  districts  have  lost  their  moist- 
ure ;  and  the  air  charged  with  the  humidity  drawn  from  them,  is 
usually  carried  away  by  the  winds  before  it  has  deposited  itself  in  a 
condensed  form  on  the  earth.  Trees  constantly  transpire  through 
their  leaves  a  great  quantity  of  moisture,  which  they  partly  absorb 
again  by  the  same  organs,  while  the  greater  part  of  their  supply  is 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


pumped  up  through  their  widely  ramifying  roots  from  considerable 
depths  in  the  ground.  Thus  a  constant  evaporation  is  produced 
which  keeps  the  forest  atmosphere  moist  even  in  long  droughts,  when 
all  other  sources  of  humidity  in  the  forest  itself  are  dried  up.  The 
warm,  moist  currents  of  air  which  come  from  other  regions  are  cooled 
as  they  approach  the  wood  by  its  less  heated  atmosphere,  and  obliged 
to  let  fell  the  humidity  with  which  they  are  charged.  The  woods 
contribute  to  the  same  effect  by  mechanically  impeding  the  motion  of 
fog  and  rain  cloud,  whose  particles  are  thus  accumulated  and  con- 
densed to  rain.  The  forest  thus  has  greater  power  than  the  open 
ground  to  retain  within  its  own  limits  already  existing  humidity,  and 
to  preserve  it,  and  it  attracts  and  collects  that  which  the  wind  brings 
it  from  elsewhere,  and  forces  it  to  deposit  itself  as  rain  or  other  pre- 
cipitation. In  consequence  of  these  relations  of  the  forest  to  humidity 
it  follows  that  wooded  districts  have  both  more  frequent  and  more 
abundant  rain,  and  in  general  are  more  humid  than  woodless  regions  ; 
for  what  is  true  of  the  woods  themselves  in  this  respect,  is  true  also 
of  the  open  country  in  their  neighborhood,  which  in  consequence  of 
the  ready  mobility  of  the  air  and  its  constant  changes,  receives  a  share 
of  the  characteristics  of  the  forest  atmosphere,  coolness  and  moisture 
When  the  districts  stripped  of  trees  have  long  been  deprived  of  rain 
and  dew,  and  the  grass  and  fruits  of  the  field  are  ready  to  wither,  the 
grounds  which  are  surrounded  by  woods  are  green  and  flourishing. 
By  night  they  are  refreshed  with  dew,  which  is  never  wanting  in  the 
moist  air  of  the  forest,  and  in  due  season  they  are  watered  by  a 
beneficent  shower  or  a  mist  which  rolls  slowly  over  them." 

Asbjofnson,  after  adducing  the  familiar  theoretical 
arguments  on  this  point,  adds : 

"  The  rainless  territories  in  Peru  and  North  Africa  establish  this 
conclusion,  and  numerous  other  examples  show  that  woods  exert  an 
influence  in  producing  rain,  and  that  rain  fails  where  they  are  want- 
ing—  for  many  countries  have,  by  the  destruction  of  the  forests,  been 
deprived  of  rain,  moisture,  springs  and  watercourses,  which  are 
necessary  for  vegetable  growth.    In  Palestine,  and  many  other  parts 


io6 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


of  Asia  and  Northern  Africa,  which  in  ancient  times  were  the 
granaries  of  Europe,  fertile  and  populous,  similar  consequences  have 
been  experienced.  These  lands  are  now  deserts,  and  it  is  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  forests  alone  which  has  produced  this  desolation.  In 
Southern  France  many  districts  have  from  the  same  cause  become 
barren  wastes  of  stone,  and  the  cultivation  of  the  vine  and  olive  has 
suffered  severely  since  the  baring  of  the  neighboring  mountains.  On 
the  other  hand,  examples  of  the  beneficial  influence  of  planting  and 
restoring  the  woods  are  not  wanting.  In  Scotland,  where  many  miles 
square  have  been  planted  with  trees,  this  effect  has  been  manifest,  and 
similar  observations  have  been  made  in  several  places  in  Southern 
France." 

Monestier  Savignat  arrives  at  this  conclusion : 

"  Forests  on  the  one  hand  diminish  evaporation  ;  on  the  other  they 
act  on  the  atmosphere  as  refrigerating  causes.  The  second  scale  of 
the  balance  predominates  over  the  other,  for  it  is  established  that  in 
wooded  countries  it  rains  oftener,  and  that  the  quantity  of  rain  being 
equal,  they  are  more  humid." 

Boussingault,  whose  observations  on  the  drying  up  of 
lakes  and  springs,  from  the  destruction  of  the  woods  in 
tropical  America,  have  often  been  cited  as  conclusive 
proof  that  the  quantity  of  rain  was  thereby  diminished, 
after  examining  the  question  with  much  care,  remarks : 

"  In  my  judgment  it  is  settled  that  very  large  clearings  must  dimin- 
ish the  annual  fall  of  rain  in  a  country." 

Numerous  other  authorities  might  be  cited  in  support 
of  the  proposition  that  forests  tend  to  produce  rain ;  but 
though  the  arguments  of  the  advocates  of  this  doctrine 
are  very  plausible,  not  to  say  convincing,  their  opinions 
are  rather  a  priori  conclusions  from  general  meteorological 
laws,  than  deductions  from  facts  of  observation,  and  i. 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


107 


is  remarkable  that  there  is  so  little  direct  evidence  on 
the  subject. 

The  effect  of  the  forest  on  precipitation  then  is  not 
free  from  doubt,  and  we  cannot  positively  affirm  that  the 
total  annual  quantity  of  rain  is  diminished  or  increased 
by  the  destruction  of  the  woods,  though  both  theoretical 
considerations  and  the  balance  of  testimony  strongly 
favor  the  opinion  that  more  rain  falls  in  wooded  than  in 
open  countries.  One  important  conclusion,  at  least,  upon 
the  meteorological  influence  of  forests  is  certain  and 
indisputed :  the  proposition,  namely,  that  within  their  own 
limits  and  near  their  own  borders,  they  maintain  a  more 
uniform  degree  of  humidity  in  the  atmosphere  than  is 
observable  in  cleared  grounds.  Scarcely  less  can  it  be 
questioned  that  they  promote  the  frequency  of  showers, 
and  if  they  do  not  augment  the  amount  of  precipitation, 
they  equalize  its  distribution  through  the  different 
seasons. 

It  is  frequently  asserted  by  dwellers  upon  the  Plains 
that  a  perceptible  change  has  taken  place  in  the  climate 
since  the  introduction  of  railroads  and  the  settlement  of 
the  small  portion  of  territory  already  occupied.  Intelli- 
gent men  express  their  full  conviction  that  rainfalls  are 
more  frequent,  and  the  climate  generally  is  less  liable  to 
sudden  changes  and  extreme  variations  than  formerly. 
It  is  hardly  within  bounds  of  possibility,  however,  that 
any  essential  change  can  have  been  effected  by  the 
settlement  of  a  portion  so  insignificant  in  comparison 
with  the  whole  area.  The  following  interesting  extract 
from  a  letter  I  have  recently  received  from  Mr.  Wm.  N. 


io8 


FOREST  FLA  A  TING. 


Byers,  Editor  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  News,  in  reply  to 
an  inquiry  on  this  subject,  probably  furnishes  the  most 
rational  explanation  of  the  belief  which  is  frequently 
expressed.  Few  men  have  had  as  good  opportunities  of 
observation  as  Mr.  Byers,  as  he  has  lived  for  more  than 
twenty  years  between  the  Missouri  and  the  Pacific;  for 
a  very  large  portion  of  the  time  in  the  open  air,  and  since 
1856,  with  the  exception  of  occasional  interruptions,  has 
been  furnishing  meteorological  reports  to  the  Smithsonian 
Institute.  As  the  records  have  to  be  made  daily,  and  at 
certain  hours,  the  effect  could  hardly  fail  to  systematize 
his  observations  and  give  much  greater  weight  to  his 
opinion  than  to  that  of  a  merely  casual  observer. 

It  will  be  seen  that  his  idea  of  the  effect  of  forest 
planting,  in  modifying  the  climate  by  checking  the  winds, 
whose  "exhaustive  power"  is  a  chief  cause  of  the  aridity 
of  the  Plains,  corresponds  with  that  which  I  have  else- 
where expressed.  He  admits  that  wherever  trees  are 
planted  and  nourished  into  mature  growth,  "  they  ameli- 
orate the  climatic  condition  immediately  around  them," 
and  that  the  protection  they  afford  arrests  and  preserves 
humidity  by  checking  evaporation.  This  corresponds 
with  the  conclusions  I  have  elsewhere  quoted,  viz :  "  that 
within  their  own  limits  and  near  their  own  borders  they 
maintain  a  more  uniform  degree  of  humidity  than  is 
observed  in  cleared  grounds."  If  this  is  true,  it  follows 
that  a  sufficient  proportion  of  forest  would  secure  the 
desired  effect,  even  though  no  increase  was  wrought  in 
the  annual  amount  of  rainfall." 

"With  twenty  years  observation  on  the  Plains  I  unhesitatingly  give 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


109 


it  as  my  opinion  that  there  is  no  change  in  their  climatic  laws.  I 
think  there  is  a  perceptible  but  irregular  cycle  of  years,  progressing 
from  extreme  wet  to  extreme  dry,  and  the  reverse,  but  nothing  else. 
I  account  for  the  "mere  opinion  of  old  settlers,"  to  which  you  refer, 
as  follows  :  These  old  settlers  came  from  the  East  —  from  moist,  and, 
more  or  less,  humid  climate  ;  ordinarily  having  frequent  and  often 
excessive  rains ;  a  dense,  sticky  soil.  The  change  to  a  country  of 
exact  opposites  was  very  impressive.  They  noticed  it  most  the  first 
year  because  so  different.  Memories  of  the  old  were  fresh  ;  inconve- 
niences of  the  new  exaggerated.  As  the  former  faded  from  year  to 
year,  the  latter  were  surmounted  one  by  one.  Gradually  he  adapted 
himself  to  the  new  order  of  things.  Ditches,  water,  irrigation,  bring 
verdure.  Trees  spring  up  ;  they  ameliorate  the  climatic  condition 
immediately  around.  With  shade,  and  green  grass  and  gurgling 
streams,  the  "old  settler's"  discomforts  disappear  as  the  memories  of 
former  years  fade  in  oblivion.  Hence  his  opinion,  in  which  he  is  as 
honest  as  though  it  was  a  fact. 

"  I  know  how  common  it  is.  I  meet  the  assertion  or  the  inquiry 
almost  every  day.  In  vain  do  I  cite  the  history  of  Eastern  lands, 
where  they  irrigate  to-day  as  they  did  three  thousand  years  ago,  else 
gather  no  harvest ;  of  Western  South  America  ;  of  Mexico,  old  and 
new  ;  of  California,  peopled  by  our  own  citizens,  where  they  have 
suffered  for  two  years  the  worst  droughts  in  twenty-four. 

"  Forest  planting  will  modify  and  ameliorate  our  climate,  because, 
to  start  the  forest,  water  must  be  provided.  The  same  supply  that 
nourishes  the  tree,  brings  grass  or  other  verdure.  The  former  breaks 
the  wind  (one  day's  wind  is  more  exhaustive  of  moisture  than  three 
day's  sun),  the  latter  carpets  and  protects  the  earth.  The  little  rain 
that  falls,  instead  of  being  immediately  absorbed  by  and  from  the 
bare,  sun-parched  and  wind-lashed  earth,  goes  to  the  tree  and  grass 
roots,  and  for  hours  or  days  will  cool  the  shaded  air.  The  tree 
requires  less  water  the  second  than  it  does  the  first  year.  Its  demands 
diminish  year  by  year,  until  finally  its  roots  will  have  struck  deep 
enough  to  supply  all  its  wants.  The  water  supply  that  will  enable 
the  planting  of  an  acre  of  forest  trees  this  year  may  safely  be 


no 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


extended  to  half  an  acre  more  next  year ;  to  an  additional  thi-ee- 
quarters  of  an  acre  the  next,  and  so  on.  Could  forest  planting  be 
made  general  it  might  in  time  affect  the  laws  of  climate  over  a  wide 
area  —  might  possibly  increase  perceptibly  the  rain  fall  —  but  I  have 
no  hope  of  that.  The  farmer,  or  the  neighborhood,  may  greatly 
improve  his  or  their  surroundings,  but  the  general  laws  of  the  universe 
can  hardly  be  changed  by  man's  feeble  hand. 

"  I  have  traveled  nearly  a  thousand  miles  south  of  here  among 
fields  and  vineyards  that  have  been  cultivated  for  three  hundred 
years  ;  have  witnessed  their  wonderful  productiveness  and  seen  above 
and  beyond  the  irrigating  ditches  that  watered  them  the  most 
parched  and  utter  barrenness.  Even  the  mountain  sides  produce  no 
trees.  The  valleys  are  densely  populated,  and  if  rain  was  to  follow 
man,  certainly  it  would  have  come  to  bless  them." 

Without  seeking  further  evidence,  or  discussing  the 
question,  whether  the  effect  of  forests  is  to  create  a 
change  of  climate  by  electrical  or  chemical  action,  or  is 
merely  mechanical,  it  is  obvious  that  they  do  render  cul- 
tivation possible,  and  exert  an  influence  in  retaining 
humidity  in  their  immediate  vicinity.  It  follows  that  the 
extent  of  this  influence  will  be  proportionate  to  that  of 
the  area  on  which  forest  growth  is  secured,  and  this  is 
the  most  encouraging  fact  connected  with  the  subject, 
since  it  relieves  us  of  the  appalling  necessity  of  waiting 
till  a  large  portion  of  the  whole  area  is  covered  with 
forest  before  hoping  for  a  perceptible  change. 

It  is  hardly  possible  for  the  mind  to  grasp  the  idea  of 
so  vast  an  extent  as  is  comprised  in  the  area  of  the  great 
Plains ;  and  it  is  idle  to  talk  of  attempting  within  any 
appreciable  time  to  plant  trees  enough  on  a  tract  which 
in  its  transverse  section  is  five  hundred  miles  across,  to 
produce  a  climatic  change.    But  it  is  certain  that  every 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


in 


such  improvement  brings  its  own  reward  in  its  immediate 
vicinity,  and  the  only  successful  solution  of  the  problem 
of  converting  the  plains  into  arable  and  habitable  lands, 
is  through  the  medium  of  forest  planting.  Settlement 
and  civilization  are  absolutely  impossible  without  pro- 
viding timber  for  the  wants  of  the  settlers.  Railroads 
may  be  built  as  the  Pacific  railroads  have  been,  by  the 
constant  efforts  of  construction  trains  in  bringing  forward 
supplies  from  the  rear.  But  it  has  already  been  shown 
that  the  natural  supplies  of  the  older  regions  are  running 
short  of  the  demands  upon  them,  and  it  is  idle  to  sup- 
pose that  they  can  be  relied  upon  for  the  wants  of  a  new 
country  nearly  as  large  as  the  whole  region  between  the 
Mississippi  and  the  Atlantic  coast,  which  is  entirely  bare 
of  trees.  But  even  if  it  could  do  so,  the  cost  of  trans- 
portation of  all  the  timber  required  for  the  infinite  var- 
iety of  purposes  of  domestic  use,  to  say  nothing  of  fuel, 
would  be  such  as  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  settlement 
except  in  the  comparatively  few  localities  where  an 
investment  of  capital  was  warranted  by  special  objects. 
The  class  of  pioneers  who  are  usually  the  first  to  develop 
the  agricultural  wealth  of  a  new  country,  and  whose 
labor  and  productions  are  the  foundation  of  its  pros- 
perity, could  gain  no  foothold  in  a  region  which,  whatever 
might  be  the  capacity  of  its  soil,  is  destitute  of  the  timber 
which  is  essential  to  its  settlement  and  cultivation. 
Until  this  want  is  supplied,  therefore,  the  region  in  ques- 
tion must  form  a  natural  barrier,  or  line  of  separation, 
instead  of  a  connecting  linjfcbetween  the  eastern  and  the 
western  portions  of   the  country,  contributing  by  its 


112 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


resources  and  its  wants  to  the  active  commercial  inter- 
course of  each. 

How  much  of  the  region  is  capable  of  growing  timber 
at  all ;  how  much  of  it  requires  irrigation  to  insure  suc- 
cessful culture,  and  how  much  consists  of  alkaline  depos- 
its on  which  no  culture  is  possible,  are  questions  to  which 
only  vague  and  indefinite  replies  can  yet  be  made.  But 
of  this  simple  fact  we  may  be  assured,  that  very  exten- 
sive tracts,  which  are  capable  of  forest  culture,  and  which 
at  present  may  be  said  to  possess  no  intrinsic  value,  are 
now  accessible  by  the  Pacific  railroads. 

We  know  that  the  belt  of  prairie  has  its  greatest  trans- 
verse expansion  in  the  Missouri  basin,  and  that  east  of 
the  meridian  of  Fort  Laramie,  the  prairies  are  covered 
with  rich  grasses  adapted  to  pasturage,  which  for  an 
unknown  period  have  supported  countless  herds  of 
bison. 

Where  such  grasses  will  grow,  trees  will  grow,  and  with 
the  growth  of  trees  in  sufficient  quantity  will  come  the 
increase  of  humidity  and  the  modification  of  the  storms, 
floods  and  other  excesses  of  natural  phenomena,  which 
are  fatal  to  the  success  of  extended  agricultural  opera- 
tions. The  first  step  toward  the  settlement  of  the  coun- 
try, therefore,  should  be  the  planting  of  tracts  of  forest 
wherever  it  is  practicable  along  the  line  of  railroad,  or 
elsewhere ;  and  the  first  thing  to  be  ascertained  is,  what 
varieties  of  trees  are  best  adapted  to  such  culture. 
Probably  it  may  be  impossible  at  first  to  grow  some  of 
the  varieties  most  desirable  for  timber ;  but  if  we  cannot 
have  what  we  would,  let  us  have  those  we  can.  Plant 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


those  that  will  grow,  and  in  time  they  will  serve  as 
screens  for  more  valuable  kinds,  as  is  done  on  the  sea 
shore,  where  the  worthless  silver  poplar  (abele)  will  grow 
luxuriantly  and  in  a  few  years  form  a  screen  behind  which 
more  delicate  deciduous  and  evergreen  trees  will  grow  as 
readily  as  if  they  were  unaware  of  the  vicinity  of  the 
ocean. 

The  labors  of  Mr.  R.  S.  Elliott,  Industrial  Agent  of 
the  Kansas  Pacific  Railroad,  have  thrown  much  light 
upon  the  subject,  and  his  own  report  of  them  contains 
so  much  interesting  and  valuable  information  which 
ought  to  be  widely  disseminated,  that  I  insert  the  whole 
of  it.  I  visited  Mr.  Elliott's  nurseries  in  the  summer  of 
187 1,  and  made  a  careful  examination  of  all  the  varieties 
of  trees  under  culture,  and  my  observations  enable  me 
fully  to  corroborate  his  interesting  statements. 


s 


H4 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  CULTIVATION   ON    THE  PLAINS 
ALONG  THE   LINE  OF  THE  KANSAS 
PACIFIC  RAILWAY. 

BY  R.  S.  ELLIOTT. 

[Published  in  Prof.  Hayden's  Geological  Report.] 

The  treeless  plains  between  the  Platte  and  Arkansas  Rivers  may 
be  said  to  extend  from  the  ninety-seventh  meridian  of  longitude  to 
the  Rocky  Mountains.  North  of  the  Platte  and  south  of  the 
Arkansas  the  general  features  of  the  country  are  similar,  but  for  the 
purpose  of  this  report  we  need  only  have  in  view  the  region  between 
the  rivers.  Its  drainage  is  mainly  through  the  Kansas  River,  the 
numerous  affluents  of  which  afford,  in  pools  or  currents,  the  water- 
supplies  which  have  enabled  the  buffalo  to  sustain  himself  in  all  its 
parts.  Along  some  of  the  streams  there  are  occasional  groves  and 
fringes  of  timber  —  ash,  box-elder,  cedar,  cherry,  cottonwood,  elm, 
hackberry,  oak,  plum,  walnut,  and  willow  ;  some  of  the  species  per- 
sistent to  the  mountains,  but  not  in  numbers  or  distribution  sufficient 
to  change  the  character  of  the  country  from  that  of  open,  treeless 
plains,  rising  gradually  from  about  1,000  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  sea  at  the  ninety-seventh  meridian  to  more  than  5,000  feet  at 
Denver. 

There  is  great  uniformity  in  the  surface  of  this  immense  inclined 
plane.  The  face  of  the  country  presents  a  series  of  gentle  undula- 
tions, but  there  are  no  points  of  much  elevation  above  the  general 
surface,  nor  any  great  depressions  below  it.  The  geology  seems  to 
be  in  harmony  with  the  surface  features,  as  the  earths  and  rocks  of 
this  vast  region,  five  hundred  miles  in  width,  range  from  Lower 
Cretaceous,  (Mudge,)  on  its  eastern  border,  to  the  later  Tertiaries  of 
the  Lake  period,  (Hayden  and  Newberry,)  near  the  base  of  the 
mountains. 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


Open  on  the  north  to  the  arctic  circle,  and  on  the  south  to  the  Rio 
Grande,  with  no  mountain  ranges  or  extensive  forests  to  check  atmos- 
pheric movements,  the  great  plains  must  necessarily  be  swept  by  winds 
as  freely  as  the  ocean.  In  spring  and  summer  the  winds  from  the 
southward  are  most  prevalent.  In  winter  the  winds  are  more  fre- 
quent from  the  northward.  In  the  autumn  they  are  apt  to  be  more 
variable,  and  at  the  same  time  of  more  gentle  character.  Wind  from 
the  west  is  seldom  observed.  The  winds  are  often  strong,  but  they 
cannot  be  classed  with  destructive  gales.  They  come  with  a  steady 
pressure,  which  may  cause  a  frail  building  to  tremble,  but  will  not 
overturn  it.  Tornadoes  and  hurricanes  seem  to  be  unknown.  There 
is  no  record  or  tradition  of  such  manifestations.  Local  thunder- 
storms and  heavy  rains,  over  comparatively  limited  districts,  are 
experienced  as  detached  phenomena,  but  are  apt  to  be  incidents  of  a 
storm  covering  a  large  area,  and  moving  eastward.  Days  of  com- 
parative calm  and  of  gentle  breezes  often  occur,  when,  perhaps,  for  a 
week  the  windmill  is  unable  to  work  the  pump  at  the  water  station, 
but  total  rest  of  the  atmosphere,  except  for  brief  periods,  is  rare.  The 
climate  is  propitious  to  health  and  to  comfort ;  for  although  changes 
of  temperature  are  at  times  sudden  and  considerable,  yet  injurious 
results  seldom  follow  them. 

As  we  pass  westward  from  the  ninety-seventh  meridian,  the  atmos- 
phere is  observed  to  be  more  arid.  Within  two  hundred  miles  of  the 
mountains,  the  deposition  of  dew  is  at  times  so  light  as  to  be  of  little 
or  no  service  to  the  vegetation.  The  annual  rainfall  is  also  less  as 
we  go  westward,  decreasing  nearly  in  the  ratio  of  distance  until  the 
divide  is  reached  at  and  southwest  from  Cedar  Point,  in  which  vicinity 
there  is  supposed  to  be  more  rain  than  eastward  in  the  plains  or 
westward  nearer  the  foot-hills.  The  natural  effect  of  decreasing  pre- 
cipitation and  increasing  aridity  is  in  some  degree  shown  in  the 
vegetation.  The  grama  and  buffalo  grasses  continue,  together  with 
the  sunflower,  solatium,  euphorbia,  and  other  plants,  which  are  vigor- 
ous, nearly  if  not  quite  as  far  east  as  the  ninety-seventh  meridian  ; 
but  we  find  that  the  blue-joint  grass  of  Central  and  Eastern  Kansas 
is  less  abundant,  and  that  cleome,  ipomea,  cactus,  ariemisia,  etc.,  enter 


n6 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


on  the  more  arid  scene  as  if  in  their  chosen  home.  But  no  consider- 
able part  of  the  plains  between  the  Platte  and  the  Arkansas  is  so  arid 
as  to  be  destitute  of  vegetation,  although  the  change  in  the  flora 
is  rather  distinctly  marked  as  we  pass  from  the  middle  of  Kansas 
westward. 

Like  any  other  extensive  area,  the  plains  exhibit  a  variety  of  soils, 
but  the  fertile  greatly  exceed  in  extent  the  unfertile  districts.  Loam, 
with  greater  or  less  mixture  of  vegetable  matter,  is  the  prevailing  soil, 
the  proportions  of  sands  and  clays  differing  greatly  in  different  local- 
ities. The  patches  of  sand  or  gravel  of  meager  fertility,  or  of  alkaline 
clays,  unsuited  to  general  plant  growth,  are  very  small  in  proportion 
to  the  whole  area,  and  with  irrigation  in  some  parts,  and  without  it  in 
others,  the  entire  region  would  prove,  on  trial,  to  be  productive,  with 
as  small  a  share  of  waste  land  as  some  of  the  most  favored  States. 
The  value  of  the  plains  for  production  is  more  affected  by  peculiar- 
ities of  climate  than  by  poverty  of  soil. 

EXPERIMENTS  IN  CULTIVATION  ORDERED. 

Twenty  years  ago  the  lands  available  for  general  agriculture  west 
of  the  State  of  Missouri  were  supposed  to  lie  in  a  belt  of  not  more 
than  one  hundred  miles  in  width,  extending  north  and  south.  Even 
when  the  Territory  of  Kansas  was  organized,  the  whole  area  west  of 
Missouri  and  east  of  the  mountains  was  of  doubtful  value  in  public 
estimation  ;  and  emigration  was  stimulated  by  political  considei-ations 
rather  than  by  correct  knowledge  or  appreciation  of  the  country. 
Beyond  the  narrow  belt,  and  stretching  away  to  the  mountains,  was 
the  unfruitful  waste,  as  popularly  estimated.  Its  possible  future  use- 
fulness for  pastoral  purposes  had  been  at  times  suggested,  but  the 
day  for  its  actual  occupancy,  if  ever  to  arrive,  was  regarded  as  far 
distant.  The  settlers,  however,  soon  ventured  beyond  the  supposed 
boundary  of  productiveness  ;  and  as  they  increased  in  numbers,  the 
area  of  available  lands  was  found  to  extend  itself  westward,  as  if  to 
meet  their  necessities.  The  construction  of  the  railway  brought 
increased  emigration,  more  accurate  knowledge  of  the  resources  of 
the  country,  and  a  firmer  confidence  in  its  future.    By  1870  settle- 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


117 


ments  had  stretched  along  the  railway  to  points  more  than  two 
hundred  miles  west  from  the  State  of  Missouri.  The  pioneer  had 
passed  the  boundary  of  the  traditional  "  desert  "  at  the  ninety-seventh 
meridian,  and  in  his  march  westward  had  found  that  the  desert,  like 
its  own  mirage,  receded  before  him.  Was  his  march  to  continue  ; 
and  how  much  farther  could  soil,  temperature,  and  rainfall  be  relied 
on  to  reward  cultivation  ?  These  questions,  important  to  the  interests 
of  the  general  public,  as  well  as  of  the  railway,  could  best  be 
answered  by  experiments,  and  the  directors  of  the  company  ordered 
some  such  experiments  to  be  made. 

In  the  spring  of  1870,  gardens  were  made  at  some  of  the  stations, 
at  distances  between  two  hundred  and  thirty-nine  and  three  hundred 
and  seventy-six  miles  west  of  Kansas  City  ;  the  farthest  westward 
being  at  Carlyle  Station,  2,948  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  Seeds 
tried  in  these  gardens  germinated  well,  and  the  plants,  with  rude  and 
imperfect  culture,  grew  encouragingly.  The  results  were  satisfactory, 
although  the  destruction  by  insects  was  greatly  beyond  anticipation. 
Irish  potatoes,  for  example,  made  vigorous  growth,  yet  about  the  time 
of  blooming  were  destroyed  by  a  species  of  blister-beetle,  {Epicauta 
corvina,  Riley,)  which  proved  to  be  a  more  formidable  enemy  than 
even  the  Colorado  potato-bug.  Spring  wheat  matured  merchantable 
grain  at  Carlyle. 

In  the  summer  and  fall  of  1870  a  few  acres  were  broken  at  each  of 
the  three  following  stations,  on  the  Kansas  Pacific  Railway,  distant 
from  Kansas  City  and  above  the  level  of  the  sea  as  follows : 


Stations. 


West  from  Kansas 
City. 


Above  sea- 
level. 


Miles. 


Feet. 

1,586 
2,019 
3,175 


Wilson,  (now  Bosland). 

Ellis  

Pond  Creek  


239 
302 
422 


These  places  are  in  the  western  half  of  the  State  of  Kansas.  All 


n8 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


are  in  the  present  buffalo  range  ;  all  are  in  the  region  of  short  grasses  ; 
all  are  in  the  open,  treeless  plains,  beyond  the  limits  heretofore 
assigned  to  settlements. 

Wheat,  rye  and  barley  were  sown  at  each  of  these  stations  in  the 
fall  of  1870 ;  at  Pond  Creek,  September  28  ;  at  Ellis,  October  20  ; 
and  at  Wilson,  November  11.  At  Pond  Creek  the  rye  grew  finely 
and  matured  a  fair  crop  ;  the  wheat  and  barley  were  partially  winter- 
killed, but  the  surviving  plants  made  heads  of  the  usual  length,  well 
filled  with  grain  of  good  size  and  quality.  At  Ellis  the  promise  of  all 
the  grains  was  excellent  until  the  1st  of  June,  when  a  hailstorm  of 
unusual  severity  prostrated  every  stem.  At  Wilson  the  grains  all  did 
well.  The  President  a  d  the  Secretary  of  the  Missouri  State  Board 
of  Agriculture  (who,  in  company  with  members  of  the  board,  visited 
the  stations  in  June)  say  in  their  report :  "We  found  wheat,  rye,  and 
barley  sown  November  11,  1870,  (at  Wilson,)  equal  to  if  not  beyond 
the  average  crop  of  any  part  of  the  Union."  And  of  Pond  Creek 
they  say  :  "  The  rye,  sown  28th  of  September,  on  raw  ground,  would 
rate  as  a  good  crop  in  Missouri  or  Illinois  ;  and  of  the  winter  wheat 
and  barley,  the  plants  which  had  survived  the  winter  were  heading 
out  finely.  Rye  may  be  regarded  as  a  valuable  crop  to  the  west  line 
of  Kansas  (without  irrigation)  ;  and  further  trials  of  wheat  and 
barley  of  the  more  hardy  kinds  will,  in  all  probability,  be  successful." 

Trials  of  grass  seeds  at  the  stations  named  have  shown  that 
sorghum,  lucerne,  timothy,  clover  and  Hungarian  grass  may  be 
regarded  as  future  forage  crops  on  the  plains  ;  the  first  and  last  being 
the  most  promising.  Maize  can  be  grown  for  fodder  at  each  of  the 
stations,  and  for  its  grain  at  Wilson  and  Ellis.  At  Pond  Creek, 
sorghum  made  a  good  length  of  stalk  and  matured  fine  panicles  of 
seeds.  At  Ellis  and  Wilson  the  stalks  reached  a  height  of  nine  to 
ten  feet,  and  abundance  of  seeds  were  matured.  This  plant  will  be 
found  to  be  of  great  value  in  Western  Kansas  and  Eastern  Colorado, 
if  its  usefulness  for  fodder  has  not  been  greatly  overrated.  In  the  dry 
atmosphere  of  the  plains,  the  stalks  could  probably  be  dried  so  as  to 
avoid  the  souring  of  the  juice,  on  which  account,  in  Illinois,  an  objec- 
tion has  been  raised  to  its  use  as  a  fodder-plant. 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


119 


TREE-SEEDS. 


There  were  planted  at  Wilson  tree-seeds  as  follows  : 

Fall  of  1870. —  Ailantus,  chestnut,  oak,  peach,  pecan,  pinon. 

Spring  of  1871. —  Ailantus,  catalpa,  elm,  locust,  honey-locust,  sil- 
ver-maple, osage-orange,  walnut. 

All  these  seeds,  except  the  pinon,  (nut-pine  of  New  Mexico,  Pinus 
edulis,)  have  done  remarkably  well. 

Seeds  of  ailantus,  catalpa,  locust,  honey-locust  and  osage-orange 
were  tried  at  Ellis  with  encouraging  prospects,  when  most  of  the 
seedling  trees  were  destroyed  by  the  hailstorm  of  the  1st  of  June. 
Seeds  of  ailantus,  sown  broadcast  during  the  first  week  in  June,  came 
up  well,  and  the  little  trees  came  safely  through  the  summer. 

Seeds  of  ailantus  sown  at  Pond  Creek  resulted  in  a  moderate 
growth  of  trees,  of  which  a  large  proportion  survived  the  summer. 

The  experiments  with  tree-seeds,  though  very  limited,  have  sufficed 
to  show  that  trees  may  be  grown  from  seed  without  irrigation,  to  the 
west  line  of  Kansas,  and  in  all  probability  to  the  base  of  the 
mountains. 

Cuttings  of  cotton-wood,  Lombardy  and  white  poplar,  and  white 
and  golden  willow,  were  tried  at  Wilson  and  did  well  in  that  locality. 
Cuttings  of  cotton-wood  and  the  willows  were  also  tried  at  Ellis  with 
a  measure  of  success. 


Trials  were  made  at  Wilson  of  transplanted  trees  of  the  following 


TRANSPLANTED  TREES. 


kinds  : 


EVERGREENS. 


Austrian  pine  . 
Corsican  pine__ 
Norway  spruce 
Red  cedar  


White  pine 
Scotch  pine. 


.Pinus  strobus. 
P.  sylvestris. 
.P.  Austriaca. 
.P.  Laricio. 


.Abies  excelsa. 

.  jfuniperus  Virginiana. 


120  FOREST  PLANTING. 


DESIDUOUS. 

Ailantus  _   A.  glandulosa. 

Ash  Fraxinus  A mericana. 

Box-elder   _  .Negundo  aceroides. 

Catalpa   _  C.  bignonoides. 

Chestnut  Castanea  vesca. 

Cotton-wood  Populus  monilifera. 

Elm     Ulmus  Americana. 

Honey-locust __  —  Gleditschia  triacanthus. 

European  larch   Larix  Europea. 

Linden      Tilia  A  mericana 

Silver-maple  Acer  dasycarpum. 

Sycamore-maple  A.  pseudo-platanus. 

Osage-orange  Madura  aurantiaca. 

Lombardy  poplar  Populus  dilatata. 

White  poplar  __   P.  alba. 

Tulip  tree  Liriodendron  tulipifera. 

White  willow   Salix  alba. 

Golden  willow    Salix  alba  (var). 

Walnut _  Juglans  nigra. 


The  foregoing  trees,  whether  transplanted  or  from  seeds  or  cuttings, 
have  done  well  at  Wilson,  making  growth  equal  to  what  is  usual  in 
Eastern  Missouri  or  Illinois.  Rev.  E.  Gale,  one  of  the  regents  of 
Kansas  State  Agricultural  College,  examined  the  trees  on  the  l8th  of 
August,  and  reported  measurements  as  follows  : 

From  Seed. —  Ailantus,  24  to  30  inches  ;  catalpa,  3  to  12  inches; 
chestnut,  4  to  12  inches  ;  elm,  10  to  20  inches  ;  locust,  36  to  48  inches  ; 
honey-locust,  16  to  24  inches  ;  silver-maple,  12  to  24  inches  ;  oak, 
8  to  10  inches  ;  osage-orange,  12  to  30  inches  ;  peach,  24  to  30  inches  ; 
pecan,  4  to  9  inches  ;  walnut,  10  to  12  inches. 

From  Cuttings. —  White  poplar,  12  to  27  inches;  Lombardy 
poplar,  24  to  36  inches  ;  cotton-wood,  18  to  24  inches  ;  white  willow, 
24  to  36  inches. 

Transplanted. —  Ailantus,  48  to  60  inches  ;  ash,  10  to  16  inches  ; 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


121 


box-elder,  36  to  40  inches  ;  catalpa,  12  to  24  inches;  chestnut,  8  to 
14  inches  ;  cotton-wood,  36  to  60  inches  ;  elm,  20  to  30  inches  ;  honey- 
locust,  36  to  42  inches ;  larch,  6  to  12  inches  ;  linden,  9  to  18  inches  ; 
silver-maple,  24  to  30  inches  ;  sycamore-maple,  12  to  24  inches  ; 
osage-orange,  12  to  36  inches  ;  peach,  30  to  36  inches  ;  white  poplar, 
24  to  36  inches  ;  Lombardy  poplar,  24  to  36  inches  ;  tulip-tree,  8  to 
10  inches  ;  willows,  36  to  48  inches  ;  walnut,  6  to  8  inches. 

Mr.  Gale  says  :  "  The  evergreens  have  nearly  all  lived,  and  have 
made  a  growth  of  from  4  to  8  inches.  All  have  done  well.  There 
is  certainly  nothing  in  the  appearance  of  these  trees  to  discourage  the 
planting  of  evergreens  in  Kansas."  It  is  proper  to  state  that  the  cat- 
alpa-seed  was  sown  broadcast  on  ground  which  had  been  broken  the 
November  previous,  and  was  not  replowed.  Seedling  walnuts  were 
grown  by  putting  the  seed  under  fresh  turned  sod.  None  of  the  trees 
had  the  care  or  cultivation  usual  in  nurseries. 

At  Ellis  the  same  transplanted  trees  were  tried  as  at  Wilson,  except 
red  cedar  and  cotton-wood.  The  result  was  encouraging,  although 
the  chestnut,  larch  and  Norway  spruce  may  be  said  to  have  failed  on 
this  first  trial,  and  some  others  were  less  vigorous  than  at  Wilson. 
The  hailstorm  of  1st  June  greatly  damaged  the  trees,  cutting  off  the 
leaves  and  shoots  and  splitting  the  bark  ;  yet  a  large  portion  of  the 
deciduous  class  made  a  fair  growth,  and  about  50  per  cent,  of  the 
pines  survived.  Of  ailantus,  ash,  catalpa,  honey-locust  and  white 
poplar  planted  at  Ellis,  every  tree  survived,  and  nearly  all  of  the  box- 
elder,  elm,  silver-maple,  osage-orange,  Lombardy  poplar  and  black 
walnut. 

At  Pond  Creek  the  growth  of  some  kinds  of  trees  was  highly 
encouraging.  Ailantus,  ash,  box-elder,  catalpa,  honey-locust  and 
osage-orange  have  done  best,  and  promise  well  for  the  future.  Elm 
and  black  walnut  made  moderate  growth,  and  seem  to  have  estab- 
lished themselves.  The  willows,  the  poplars,  and  the  silver-maple 
did  not  come  up  to  expectation.  European  larch  and  most  of  the 
evergreens  failed ;  but  a  few  of  the  pines  lived  through  the  summer, 
and  in  another  season  will  probably  do  well.  The  trees  at  Pond 
Creek  are  in  one  of  the  most  forbidding  spots  of  all  the  plains.  At 


122 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


the  new  station,  Wallace,  about  two  miles  eastward,  and  on  higher 
ground  but  with  different  soil,  silver-maple  and  Lombardy  poplar 
seem  to  do  much  better  than  at  Pond  Creek. 

NO  IRRIGATION. 

The  experiments  were  all  without  irrigation.  Except  to  soak  some 
of  the  seeds,  or  to  puddle  the  roots  of  the  trees  as  they  were  set  out, 
not  one  drop  of  water  was  applied  by  human  agency.  The  trees  had 
not  the  benefit  of  good  care  and  cultivation  ;  they  were  not  aided  by 
mulching  the  ground  ;  nor  had  they  any  shade  or  shelter  from  the 
winds.  All  the  conditions  of  the  experiments  were  such  as  the  ordi- 
nary farmer  may  easily  imitate. 

One  object  was  to  test  the  possibility  of  growing  trees  and  other 
plants  on  the  plains  depending  on  the  rainfall  alone.  It  was  deemed 
important  to  show  that  the  settler  in  the  open  waste  may  adorn  his 
home  with  trees  ;  may  grow  fruits  and  timber  ;  may  raise  grains  and 
other  vegetable  food  for  his  family  and  his  live  stock  without  resort 
to  expensive  processes  of  artificial  watering.  So  far  as  we  may  judge 
from  a  single  season,  the  object  has  been  accomplished  ;  and  it  is 
not  doubted  that  future  years  will  sustain  the  promise  of  the  past 
season. 

SETTLEMENTS  ON  THE  PLAINS. 

Within  the  past  two  years  settlers,  in  families  and  colonies,  have 
spread  westward,  along  the  line  of  the  Kansas  Pacific  Railway,  and 
also  on  streams  north  and  south  of  the  road,  nearly  to  the  one  hun- 
dredth meridian.  The  purpose  is  generally  to  grow  and  deal  in  cattle 
and  other  live  stock,  and  this  purpose  will  be  greatly  aided  by  the 
capability  of  the  country  to  produce  grains  and  other  products  of 
general  agriculture.  The  first  settlers  keep  near  the  streams,  as  a 
general  rule,  for  the  convenience  of  water  ready  at  hand  and  the  lim- 
ited supply  of  timber.  If  we  look  backward  twenty-five  years  and 
reflect  on  the  westward  extension  of  settlements  during  that  time, 
we  must  see  that  the  causes  which  have  pushed  the  "  frontier  "  nearly 
three  hundred  miles  west  from  the  mouth  of  the  Kansas  River,  are 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


123 


yet  in  active  operation,  aided  by  potent  agencies  not  then  in  exist- 
ence. Then  the  locomotive  was  unknown  west  of  the  Mississippi  ; 
now  there  are  in  Iowa,  Missouri,  Nebraska  and  Kansas  thousands  of 
miles  of  railroad.  Then  the  entire  population  of  the  United  States 
was  only  about  twenty-one  millions  ;  now  it  is  over  forty  millions.  It 
is  safe  to  say  that  the  forces  operating  to  throw  population  westward, 
taking  into  consideration  facilities  of  transportation,  are  three  times 
as  powerful  as  they  were  twenty-five  years  ago.  The  result  will  be  a 
gradual  spread  of  people  over  the  great  plains,  arranging  their  pur- 
suits and  modifying  their  habits  to  suit  the  capabilities  of  the  country 
and  the  necessities  of  their  respective  localities. 

EFFECT  ON  CLIMATE. 

It  is  a  bold  assumption  to  say  that  the  spread  of  settlements  over 
the  plains  is  to  materially  affect  the  climate.  Yet  it  is  not  unreason- 
able to  expect  a  degree  of  amelioration.  Every  house,  every  fence, 
every  tree  which  civilized  communities  may  in  the  future  establish  in 
those  vast,  open  areas,  will  aid,  in  some  measure,  to  check  the  sweep 
of  the  winds.  Every  acre  broken  by  the  plow  will  retain  a  greater 
amount  of  moisture  after  rains,  and  for  a  longer  time,  than  the 
unbroken  prairie.  The  genial  rains  of  spring  and  summer  will  evap- 
orate with  less  rapidity,  and  there  will  be  a  greater  degree  of  humid- 
ity in  the  atmosphere,  heavier  dews,  and  possibly  more  frequent 
showers.  Even  if  the  annual  average  of  rainfall  shall  not  be  increased, 
the  chances  are  that  it  will  be  more  evenly  distributed.  If  we  may 
judge  by  the  experience  of  other  parts  of  the  world,  where  the 
destruction  of  forests  has  operated  to  dry  up  fountains,  we  may  reason- 
ably expect  that  the  breaking  up  of  the  surface  by  the  plow,  the 
covering  of  the  earth  with  taller  herbage,  and  the  growth  of  trees, 
will  all  tend  to  the  development  of  springs  where  now  unknown,  and 
to  render  streams  perennial  which  are  now  intermittent.  Thus  the 
gradual  spread  of  inhabitants  over  the  plains  will  tend  to  enlarge 
their  capabilities  and  to  render  them  more  habitable. 

Under  date  of  June  10th,  1872,  Mr.  Elliott  writes  me 
as  follows  : 


124 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


''"We  have  planted  a  variety  of  seeds  and  have  up  —  at  Wilson  — 
butternuts,  coffee  bean,  box  elder,  hickory,  locust,  honey-locust,  osage- 
orange  and  black  walnut. 

"  At  Ellis  —  the  same  except  coffee  bean —  also,  white  ash  is  up. 

"  At  Pone  Creek  —  Box  elder,  locust,  honey-locust. 

"Ailantus  is  up  at  Pond  Creek  and  Ellis  —  at  each  place,  larch  plant- 
ed this  year  looks  well.  Will  succeed  at  Ellis.  I  have  not  been  at 
Pond  Creek  for  a  month,  and  cannot  report  on  it. 

"  Transplanted  ash,  catalpa,  box  elder,  honey-locust,  silver-maple, 
black  walnut  and  osage-orange  do  well  at  Pond  Creek  and  at  Ellis. 
Pines  are  doing  well  at  each  place,  but  better  at  Ellis  and  "Wilson 
than  at  Pond  Creek.  At  Ellis,  last  year's  pines  (Austrian  and  Scotch), 
have  made  shoots  eight  or  nine  inches  long. 

"  Corn,  sorgum,  millet,  pumpkins,  potatos,  melons,  pea-nuts,  etc., 
etc.,  are  all  doing  well  at  Wilson  and  Ellis  ;  rye  at  Pond  Creek  ;  rye 
and  wheat  at  Ellis  ;  corn  was  doing  well  at  Pond  Creek,  my  men  say, 
but  was  all  pulled  up  by  gophers  or  prairie  dogs. 

"  At  Wilson,  a  variety  of  trees  and  shrubbery  sent  by  Thos.  Meehan, 
of  Philadelphia,  are  doing  well  —  spireas,  altheas,  forsythias,  etc.,  also 
paulownia,  mountain  ash,  hornbeam,  judas  tree,  etc. 

"  The  experiments  will  go  on  this  year,  not  in  a  large  way,  but  suf- 
ficient to  prove  a  great  deal.  The  Railroad  Company  is  only  testing. 
but  it  is  something  to  have  even  a  small  test  going  on.  All  who  ex- 
amine the  little  fields  are  surprised.  Other  railroads  are  operating. 
The  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Sante  Fe  Railroad  Company  has  made  ar- 
rangements with  S.  T.  Kelsey  to  plant  part  of  a  section  every  ten 
miles  west  of  the  99th  meridian. 

"  You  may  safely  say  that  tree  culture  on  the  plains  is  possible, 
without  irrigation." 

It  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  Elliott's  efforts  have  been  di- 
rected to  prove  that  the  growing  of  trees  is  possible,  even 
with  the  slight  care  they  are  likely  to  receive  at  the 
hands  of  the  average  pioneer  settler.  No  irrigation  was 
made  use  of,  and  no  cultivation  was  applied  after  the 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


trees  were  planted.  The  experiments  were  the  more 
valuable  on  this  account,  as  proving  that  it  involved  no 
extraordinary  outlay  of  capital  or  labor.  And  it  is  the 
more  encouraging  from  the  evidence  it  affords  that  the 
careful  culture  which  should  be  bestowed  wherever  the 
work  of  forest  planting  was  systematically  undertaken 
would  be  amply  rewarded. 

The  question  naturally  arises,  by  whom  are  these 
plantations  to  be  made?  The  United  States  Govern- 
ment is  obviously  the  party  most  largely  interested,  be- 
ing the  largest  proprietor,  and  the  lands  being  at  present 
almost  valueless  for  want  of  timber,  yet  susceptible  of 
attaining  an  enormous  value  within  twenty  or  thirty 
years,  by  a  judicious  system  of  forest  planting.  A  com- 
pany has  recently  been  organized  in  Kansas,  which  com- 
prises the  names  of  several  very  able  and  reliable  men, 
who  propose  to  commence  and  carry  out  an  extended  sys- 
tem of  forest  planting  if  they  can  get  from  Congress  a 
grant  of  land  sufficient  to  warrant  the  undertaking.  They 
ask  a  grant  of  one  section  of  land  for  every  mile,  from 
Fort  Dodge,  Kansas,  to  Pueblo,  Colorado, —  270  miles  — 
and  propose  to  plant  eighty  acres  of  forest  on  every  sec- 
tion, and  to  make  an  experimental  station  every  few 
miles,  for  the  purpose  of  testing  every  variety  of  tree 
that  could  be  of  any  practical  value  to  the  country  for 
fruit,  ornament,  fuel,  timber  or  shelter.  The  wisdom  of 
giving  liberal  encouragement  to  such  enterprises  is  mani- 
fest, and  at  the  outset  it  is  essential  that  government  aid 
should  be  extended.  After  the  system  is  once  fairly  in- 
augurated it  will  prove  self-supporting  and  work  its  own 
extension. 


126 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


The  following  circular  has  been  issued  by  the  associa- 
tion, and  comprises  an  interesting  statement  of  the  ne- 
cessity of  the  work  and  the  means  by  which  they  propose 
to  begin  it  : 

"  The  design  of  the  association  is  to  settle  the  great  question  so 
often  asked,  "  What  are  these  barren  plains  good  for?"  by  investing 
capital,  skill  and  labor,  in  the  experiment  on  such  a  scale  as  will,  if 
successful,  increase  the  value  of  three  hundred  thousand  square  miles 
of  territory,  vastly  more  than  the  small  franchise  asked  from  the  Gov- 
ernment is  worth  ;  for  in  its  present  condition  it  is  an  unprofitable  and 
unproductive  area.  Our  association  is  duly  incorporated  under  the 
laws  of  Kansas,  and  our  board  of  directors  are  all  men  who  have 
been  closely  identified  with  the  subject  of  tree  growing  for  years. 
Three  of  our  directors,  Dr.  Warden,  of  Ohio,  Robert  Douglass,  of 
Waukegan,  Illinois,  and  Prof.  S.  T.  Kelsey,  of  Pomona,  Kansas,  are 
men  of  eminent  ability  and  experience  in  tree  growing,  and  have  a  na- 
tional reputation  as  scientific  horticulturists,  having  made  this  busi- 
ness a  life  study. 

"  Prof.  Kelsey  has  the  immediate  supervision  of  all  the  forest  tree 
growing  of  the  association,  assisted  by  the  experience  and  advice  of 
Dr.  Warden,  of  Ohio,  and  Mr.  Douglass,  of  Illinois.  Hon.  Alfred 
Gray  and  J.  K.  Hudson,  of  Wyandotte  county,  Kansas,  both  of  them 
members  of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture,  with  Hon.  W.  H.  Small- 
wood,  Secretary  of  State,  are  directors  in  the  association,  and  are  all 
experienced  horticulturists.  The  President  of  our  association  is  Col. 
T.  J.  Peter,  General  Manager,  of  the  A.  T.  &  S.  F.  Railroad.  Every 
member  of  this  association  is  heartily  in  sympathy  with  the  proposed 
enterprise,  and  if  Congress  will  give  us  the  encouragement  asked  for, 
we  expect  to  make  the  solution  of  this  question  a  leading  one  for  the 
next  five  years. 

"  We  are  now  engaged  in  a  series  of  experiments  between  Topeka 
and  Fort  Dodge,  on  the  lands  of  the  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe 
Railroad,  and  if  Congress  will  grant  us  the  aid  asked  for,  we  propose 
to  continue  our  work  across  the  plains,  by  investing  capital,  skill  and 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


127 


energy  in  this  enterprise,  which  will  add  directly  and  indirectly  mill- 
ions of  dollars  to  the  value  of  our  Government  possessions  in  the 
West.  These  lands  are  at  present  worthless,  and  unless  the 
requisite  assistance  is  rendered  to  prove  their  capacity  for  agricul- 
tural developments,  millions  of  acres  of  them  must  remain  of  no 
value  whatever. 

"  Our  association  is  composed  of  men  who  have  faith  in  believing 
that  their  practical  experience,  coupled  with  their  great  interest  and 
sympathy  with  this  subject  in  all  its  bearings,  can  and  will,  (if  en- 
couragement is  given  us,)  give  to  these  lands  a  value  a  thousand  times 
more  than  the  franchise  asked  for  are  worth  to  the  General  Govern- 
ment. 

"  West  of  the  Mississippi  there  is  not  a  State  that  has  a  stick  of 
timber  more  than  is  needed  for  its  own  consumption  in  our  own 
generation.  The  Sierra  gorges,  and  a  large  surface  of  Oregon  have 
good  supplies  of  timber,  and  some  of  the  mountain  ranges  are  well 
covered  with  trees,  but  no  streams  are  there,  large  enough  to  convey 
the  logs  or  lumber  to  where  it  is  needed,  or  can  be  made  available. 
Five  acres  of  good  timber,  selected  and  cultivated  where  it  is  need- 
ed, is  of  more  value  than  five  hundred  acres  away  where  it  cannot  be 
made  available  for  our  purpose. 

"  The  American  forests,  once  the  richest  inheritance  that  Divine 
providence  ever  bestowed  upon  a  people,  have  been  swept  away  be- 
fore the  onward  march  of  civilization,  to  such  an  extent,  that  it  has 
already  become  a  question  of  serious  import,  '  Where  shall  the 
supply  for  future  generations  come  from  ?'  No  rational  answer 
can  be  given  to  this,  other  than  to  enter  immediately  upon  the  work 
of  Forest  Tree  growing.  This  is  imperatively  necessary,  both  for 
protection  in  exposed  situations,  and  for  building  and  mechanical 
purposes. 

"  With  the  present  and  prospective  increase  in  the  consumption  of 
pine,  all  the  accessible  pine  timber  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  will 
soon  be  exhausted.  The  Chicago  market  alone  receives  over  orie 
thousand  millions  of  feet  of  lumber  per  annum,  and  say  that  this 
represents  one-fourth  of  all  the  lumber  that  is  taken  from  oui  forests 


128 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


in  one  year,  and  you  can  plainly  see  that  the  aggregate  will  very  soon 
cause  the  last  "  Requiem  of  the  Pine  Forest "  to  be  sung,  for  in 
twenty  years  they  will  all  have  melted  away.  Individuals,  States 
and  Nation  should  awake  to  the  fact  that  soon  our  whole  forest  sup- 
plies will  have  passed  away.  The  only  remedy  is  in  a  system  of  for- 
est growing,  aided  and  encouraged  by  Government,  and  unless  this  is 
done,  we  will  soon  be  compelled  to  resort  to  importation.  There  is  no 
place  on  the  continent  where  the  encouragement  of  a  completely  or- 
ganized system  of  tree  planting,  by  men  who  thoroughly  understand 
the  business,  and  appreciate  the  great  and  growing  necessity  for  the 
inauguration  of  these  and  kindred  enterprises,  will  be  of  so  great  a 
national  benefit  as  on  the  barren  plains  of  the  West.  It  would 
convert  this  vast  desert  into  a  well  developed  agricultural  country 
more  rapidly  than  anything  the  Government  could  do,  and  we  believe 
the  subject  is  one  well  worthy  of  the  care  and  attention  of  Congress. 

"  The  Hon.  J.  M.  Edmonds,  the  commissioner  of  the  public  lands, 
in  his  report  to  the  House  in  answer  to  the  enquiries  of  Hon.  J.  M. 
Donnelly,  in  regard  to  this  question  of  forest  tree  growing,  says  under 
date  of  May  29,  1866 : 

" '  The  subject  of  inquiry  is  one  of  vast  importance  to  the  future  of 
this  country,  a  proper  answer  to  which  can  only  be  made  after  exact 
knowledge  shall  be  gained  as  to  the  best  and  surest  means  of  promot- 
ing the  purpose  in  view. 

'"A  large  portion  of  the  vast  region  between  the  Mississippi  and 
Pacific  is  wholly  destitute  of  timber,  and  this  destitution  is  the  great 
and  principal  hindrance  to  the  rapid  advance  OF  settlements. 

" '  These  vast  treeless  plains  and  plateaus  will  be  rendered 
habitable  only  by  the  presence  of  trees  and  groves,  which  will 
fertalize  and  moisten  the  soil,  soften  and  modify  the  climate,  and  pro- 
tect men  and  animals  from  the  blighting  effects  of  dry  and  searching 
winds  which  now  almost  desolate  that  region. 

"  4  It  is  a  demonstrated  fact  that  population  will  not  AND  CAN- 
NOT ADVANCE  far  beyond  the  protection  and  advantages  op 
groves  and  forests.     In  densely  timbered  sections,  trees  in  the 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


129 


opening  of  the  country  are  the  great  obstacles  to  improvement  and 
cultivation,  and  are  therefore  destroyed,  not  only  without  mercy,  but 
with  zest  and  with  utter  disregard  of  the  future. 

"  '  Already  the  great  forests  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Indiana 
and  Ohio  have  been  so  far  depleted  that  those  States  resort  to  Mich- 
igan and  Wisconsin  for  lumber  and  timbers  for  domestic  use.  True, 
those  States  have  yet  much  timber,  but  they  have  little  or  none  of  the 
most  valuable  kinds  for  export,  and  they  have  so  well  learned  its  value 
that  they  will  purchase  rather  than  use  their  own,  preferring  to  hold  it 
as  an  investment. 

"  '  But  how  long  will  the  forests  of  Michigan,  Northern  Wisconsin 
and  Minnesota  stand  hefore  the  treble  drain  of  the  older  Eastern 
States,  the  great  prairies  and  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  ?  Long  be- 
fore Michigan,  Northern  Wisconsin  or  Minnesota,  (the  only  States 
which  can  now  export  timber  in  large  quantities,)  shall  contain  a 
population  one-half  as  dense  as  Massachusetts,  they  will  not  only 
cease  to  export,  but  will  find  a  scarcity  for  their  own  local  purposes. 

"  '  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  to  this  time  our  great  forests 
have  met  the  demands  and  destruction  of  a  gradually  rising  popula- 
tion from  three  to  thirty-three  millions  of  people,  whilst  they  were  for 
nearly  the  whole  time  diving  deeper  into  the  recesses  of  the  unbroken 
primeval  supply.  We  have  now  gone  through  and  surrounded  this 
great  timber  reserve,  and  we  enter  upon  the  margin  of  the  great  tree- 
less waste  with  our  original  store  three-quarters  consumed,  the  de- 
mand accelerated,  and  the  consumers  to  rise  rapidly  from  thirty-three 
to  fifty  millions  within  the  last  third  of  this  century.  A  little  com- 
mon arithmetic  will  satisfy  any  thinking  man  of  the  consequences, 
and  of  the  proportion  which  the  demand  and  supply  will  bear  to  each 
other  at  the  close  of  as  compared  with  the  commencement  of  this 
century.  Extend  the  time  for  another  five  years,  with  the  added  pop- 
ulation, and  it  will  be  fortunate  if  our  people  get  boards  three  inches 
wide,  as  in  China  at  the  present  time.  Is  it  not  apparent  that  we 
should  at  once  cease  to  destroy  and  commence  to  produce  ?' 

9 


13° 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


"  Here  we  have  the  views  of  a  gentleman  who  has  given  the  subject 
much  thought  and  attention,  and  his  views  should  be  received  as  com- 
ing from  a  source  entitled  to  credit. 

"  We  ask  the  aid  of  the  Government,  because  we  look  upon  this 
work  as  being  of  National  importance  and  this  experiment  on 
such  a  scale  as  to  be  of  permanent  value,  requires  the  outlay  of  a 
large  amount  of  capital,  from  which  no  return  can  be  expected  for 
years,  and  without  the  aid  and  encouragement  of  Congress,  the  amount 
of  capital  necessary  to  carry  it  forward  cannot  be  enlisted. 

"  We  do  not  expect  to  raise  forests  to  supply  the  necessities  of  the 
country,  or  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  future,  but  we  propose  to 
make  such  experiments,  and  on  such  a  scale,  as  to  show  how  it  can  be 
done,  and  publish  the  results  of  our  successes  and  our  failures  to  the 
whole  country,  so  that  all  may  be  benefited  by  them. 

-  NO  ONE  INDIVIDUAL  CAN  AFFORD  EITHER  THE  LAND,  THE  LABOR 
OR  THE  NECESEARY  EXPENDITURES  OF  MONEY  TO  MAKE  THESE  EX- 
PERIMENTS, and  hundreds  of  men  who  are  willing  to  plant  forest 
trees  on  the  plains,  are  waiting  to  profit  by  the  experience  and  ex- 
penditures of  others  who  must  first  point  out  the  proper  way  and 
kinds  to  plant.  When  the  experiments  are  properly  made  and  the 
necessary  information  given,  there  will  be  plenty  to  imitate.  Every 
tree  grown  by  our  association,  or  that  by  our  example  and  influence 
may  be  grown,  will  be  just  where  it  is  wanted,  and  where  it  will  do 
the  most  good.  Our  association  will  not  only  be  obliged  to  expend 
vastly  more  than  what  these  lands  are  worth  to  carry  on  this  enter- 
prise successfully,  but  will  in  addition  have  to  expend  a  large  portion 
of  the  lands  also  in  order  to  get  the  necessary  labor  located  where  it 
will  be  available  for  our  use,  and  what  land  we  can  save,  and  the 
growth  of  our  trees,  will  be  our  reward  for  capital  and  labor  expend- 
ed. If  we  are  not  successful  in  growing  these  trees,  the  Government 
loses  nothing  by  the  work  we  do.  Almost  any  other  expenditure,  in 
any  legitimate  enterprise,  will  yield  a  speedy  return  —  commerce, 
manufactures,  crops  or  herbs  —  but  in  the  planting  of  trees  it  will  be 
years  befo)-e  the  profits  for  skilled  labor  and  capital  expended  will 
show  any  return.    No  great  and  complete  efforts  have  ever  yet  been  made 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


with  a  view  to  ascertain  definitely  what  use  can  be  made  of  this  vast 
area  of  treeless  lands.  Some  persons,  it  is  true,  have  planted  a  few 
trees  on  the  plains,  but  nothing  scientific  or  systematic,  designed  to 
establish  facts  and  principles  in  this  direction,  has  ever  yet  been  un- 
dertaken. 

"  It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  foiest  trees  exercise  a  grand  influence 
(when  they  are  present)  over  the  climatology  of  the  country,  and  con- 
trol to  a  great  extent  climatic  extremes.  They  are  beneficial  to  the 
agricultural  interests  around  them.  Rains  are  induced  by  them, 
springs  are  created  in  the  thirsty  land  by  their  planting,  and  the  cold 
blasts  of  winter  are  moderated  by  them. 

"  '  Is  there  an  interest  so  great  that  is  so  much  neglected  —  one  so 
much  needing  attention  as  this  ?'  Government  is  liberal  in  its  dona- 
tions in  the  interest  of  commerce,  and  as  the  full  development  of  the 
agricultural  interests  of  the  land  is  the  true  basis  of  National  wealth, 
our  law  makers  should  be  equally  liberal  in  fostering  and  protecting 
so  vast  an  interest.  '  Is  there  any  better  way  to  encourage  a  measnre 
of  National  importance  than  by  aiding  an  enterprise  that  will  develop 
so  great  an  interest,  as  the  one  proposed  in  this  bill  ?' 

Yours  most  respectfully, 
E.  S.  NICCOLLS, 

Secretary  Western  Forest  Tree  and  Hedge  Growing  As.,  of  Kansas? 

Next  to  the  National  Government,  the  parties  most 
interested  in  the  work  are  the  various  railroad  companies 
whose  lines  intersect  the  region,  and  whose  extended 
territorial  possessions  would  be  vastly  increased  in  value 
by  the  establishment  of  an  extended  and  wisely  managed 
system  of  forest  planting.  The  advantages  they  would 
thus  secure,  have  already  suggested  themselves  to  the 
directors,  and  the  subject  has  been  more  or  less  agitated 
for  two  or  three  years  past,  but  I  have  not  yet  heard  of 
any  decisive  action  on  the  part  of  either  of  the  great 


132 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


companies.  The  Kansas  Pacific  led  off  by  the  appoint- 
ment of  Mr.  Elliot  as  Industrial  Agent,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  experimental  nurseries ;  but  after  proving 
the  possibility  of  growing  trees  as  far  west  as  Pond 
Creek,  400  miles  west  of  Kansas  City,  they  have  left  it 
to  others  to  profit,  if  they  will,  by  their  labors,  but  have 
failed  to  turn  the  knowledge  thus  acquired  to  their  own 
benefit.  The  Atchison,  Topeka  &  Santa  Fe  Railroad 
has  made  an  important  move  in  the  right  direction  by  a 
liberal  arrangement  with  Mr.  S.  T.  Kelsey,  one  of  the 
most  experienced  and  reliable  tree  planters  of  the  West, 
who  is  to  plant  a  certain  portion  of  each  of  twenty-eight 
sections  of  land,  situated  ten  miles  apart  on  the  line  of 
the  road.  The  trees  are  to  receive  what  attention  they 
require  till  they  attain  such  age  and  size  as  to  need  no 
further  care  —  the  object  being  to  demonstrate  the  possi- 
bility and  the  profits  of  forest  culture,  as  an  encourage- 
ment to  settlers.  The  Burlington  &  Missouri  River 
Railroad  has  had  a  good  deal  of  discussion  of  the 
subject  of  forest  planting  on  the  line  of  the  extension  of 
the  road  from  Plattsmouth  to  Fort  Kearney,  along  the 
whole  of  which  route,  tree  culture,  I  am  confident,  would 
be  perfectly  easy ;  but  no  definite  results  have  followed. 
If  the  Union  Pacific  has  taken  any  steps  in  the  matter  I 
have  heard  nothing  of  it,  and  the  Northern  Pacific,  I  am 
informed,  "  has  not  done  much  in  the  way  of  planting 
trees,  except  ccmmencing  the  work  along  the  line  for 
wind-screens  and  snow-breaks." 

The  work  is  of  a  novel  character,  involving  very  con- 
siderable outlay,  and  promising  no  immediate  return.  It 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


133 


is  also  extraneous  to  the  usual  customary  works  incident 
to  railroad  direction,  and  has  therefore  an  apparently 
speculative  character  which  directors  are  unwilling  to 
assume. 

The  Leavenworth,  Lawrence  &  Galveston  Railroad 
Company,  under  the  direction  of  its  wise  Superintendent, 
O.  Chanute,  Esq.,  has  instituted  a  system  for  the  purpose 
of  encouraging  settlers  along  its  line,  in  planting  hedges, 
which  is  well  worthy  the  consideration  of  many  other 
roads. 

The  nature  of  this  system  may  be  best  explained  by 
the  following  circular,  which  is  sent  to  every  land  pro- 
prietor along  the  line  of  the  road  : 


The  killing  and  injuring  of  stock  by  trains,  proving  not  only  a 
great  loss  and  annoyance  to  farmers  along  the  line,  but  a  source  of 
considerable  danger  to  the  trains  and  the  traveling  public,  the 
Leavenworth,  Lawrence  and  Galveston  Railroad  Company  is  desirous 
of  beginning  the  fencing  of  its  line  in  advance  of  any  legal  require- 
ment to  do  so,  and  for  this  purpose  makes  the  following  proposal  to 
the  proprietors  of  the  land  adjoining  its  right  of  way : 

1.  The  railroad  company  will,  upon  application,  furnish  at  the 
nearest  station,  during  the  proper  season  for  planting,  osage  orange 
plants  in  sufficient  quantities  to  set  out  a  hedge  on  the  right  of  way 
lines  through  each  cultivated  farm,  and  will,  when  the  hedge  is  grown 
and  in  condition  to  turn  stock,  as  ascertained  by  actual  examination 
of  a  skilled  inspector,  pay  the  proprietor,  or  his  assigns,  the  sum  of 
thirty-five  cents  a  rod. 

2.  The  railroad  company  will,  about  the  time  the  hedge  is  ready  to 
turn  out  to  stock,  fence  up  at  its  own  expense  such  short  gaps  as  must 
be  necessarily  left  where  there  is  no  soil  to  grow  a  hedge,  and  will 


Superintendent's  Office  L.,  L.  &  G.  R.  R. 
Lawrence,  Kansas,  November  8,  18 


134 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


connect  the  same  with  the  bridges,  cattle  passes  and  cattle  guards. 

3.  The  company  will,  upon  application,  put  in  such  new  cattle 
guards  as  may  be  required  to  enable  the  farmers  to  protect  the  grow- 
ing hedges  by  cross  fences  or  other  field  enclosures  ;  the  necessity  to 
be  determined  by  the  company. 

4.  The  proprietor  or  tenant  of  the  land  shall  prepare  the  same  for 
setting  out  the  hedge,  and  the  plants  will  not  be  furnished  until  the 
inspector  has  examined  it  and  reported  it  to  be  in  good  condition. 

5.  All  setting  out,  protecting,  cultivation  and  care  of  the  hedge 
shall  be  performed  by  the  proprietor  or  tenant,  and  the  above  men- 
tioned payment  of  thirty-five  cents  per  rod,  shall  only  be  made  when 
it  is  a  continuous  efficient  hedge,  capable  of  turning  stock  of  all 
kinds,  save  at  those  points  where  there  is  no  soil,  as  above  provided. 
The  intent  of  this  proposition  being  to  throw  the  whole  care  of  the 
growing  hedge  upon  the  farmer,  and  to  make  it  to  his  interest  to  do 
the  work  well. 

6.  In  order  to  prevent  the  entire  failure  of  any  piece  of  hedge  once 
started,  the  company  reserves  the  right  of  taking  charge  of  any  por- 
tion of  the  same  which  may  be  abandoned  or  improperly  taken  care 
of  by  the  farmer.  In  which  case  he  shall  be  entitled  to  no  compen- 
sation for  setting  out  or  cultivating  the  same  ;  but  the  company  shall 
only  be  entitled  to  take  possession  of  the  same  after  three  disinter- 
ested fence  viewers,  selected  from  among  neighboring  farmers,  shall 
have  decided  that  the  hedge  is  not  receiving  proper  attention. 

7.  As  experienced  hedge  growers  in  this  State  estimate  the  whole 
cost  of  preparing  the  ground,  setting  out  and  raising  a  hedge,  the 
plants  being  furnished,  at  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  cents  per  rod, 
it  is  hoped  that  the  higher  price  here  offered  will  induce  proprietors 
to  enclose  and  cultivate  the  land  near  the  railroad,  so  as  to  avail 
themselves  of  this  proposal. 

8.  Any  benefits  or  bounties  provided  by  the  laws  of  the  State  for 
growing  hedges  will  be  relinquished  by  the  company  to  the  farmers. 

9.  Forms  of  contracts,  made  assignable  upon  the  sale  or  transfer  of 
the  land,  have  been  prepared,  embodying  the  above  conditions,  and 
will  be  filled  out  upon  application  being  made  in  writing  upon  the 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


*35 


form  herewith.  Blanks  maybe  obtained  from  the  section  foreman. or 
from  the  station  agents. 

10.  As  it  is  very  desirable  that  the  company  should  know  at  an 
early  day  how  many  plants  to  provide  for  next  spring,  the  farmers 
who  may  wish  to  avail  themselves  of  this  offer  are  earnestly  desired 
to  fill  out  and  forward  their  applications  without  delay.  Make  out  a 
separate  application  for  each  piece  of  land,  even  if  owned  by  the 
same  party,  so  as  to  avoid  the  making  out  of  new  contracts,  should 
you  hereafter  sell  a  portion  of  your  land. 

The  company  will  not  be  bound  to  recognize  any  application  made 
subsequently  to  the  first  day  of  March,  1872. 

O.  CHANUTE,  Superintendent. 

With  the  circular  the  farmer  is  also  provided  with  a 
printed  blank  for  him  to  fill,  stating  the  location  of  his 
land,  how  many  rods  of  hedge  will  be  required  on  each 
side  of  the  railroad,  and  how  much  of  it  he  will  have  in 
readiness  for  planting  the  ensuing  season.  This  is 
accompanied  by  a  printed  envelope,  directed  to  the 
superintendent,  labelled  "Application  for  Hedging,"  in 
which  the  blank  form,  after  being  filled,  may  be  enclosed 
and  left  at  the  nearest  railroad  station,  to  be  forwarded 
to  the  superintendent's  office.  A  form  of  contract  is  then 
sent  to  him  to  be  signed,  binding  him  and  the  company 
to  the  mutual  performance  of  the  duties  set  forth  in  the 
circular,  and  at  the  proper  season  the  requisite  number 
of  hedge  plants  are  forwarded.  This  method  of  relieving 
the  farmers  so  far  as  possible  of  labor  and  inconvenience 
in  making  the  application,  has  no  doubt  tended  greatly 
to  promote  the  success  of  the  work ;  and  I  am  informed 
by  Mr.  Chanute  that  the  farmers  respond  to  the  call  with 


136 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


hearty  interest,  and  applications  were  received  during  the 
winter,  and  have  been  since  filled,  for  more  than  sixty 
miles  of  hedging. 

Without  going  deeply  into  estimates,  whose  results 
would  be  dependant  upon  many  contingencies,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  prove  by  very  simple  calculations  that  the  future 
interests  of  every  road  which  crosses  the  plains  are  so 
intimately  connected  with  the  work  of  tree  planting  that 
it  cannot  afford  to  forego  the  advantages  it  offers.  As  I 
selected  the  item  of  ties  as  the  simplest  article  with  which 
to  illustrate  the  amount  of  timber  consumed,  let  us  again 
make  use  of  it  as  a  basis  of  calculation  of  possible  results. 

Seedling  larch  trees  of  two  years  growth  can  be  had  at 
the  nurseries  for  $5  per  1,000.  If  set  in  nursery  rows, 
the  plants  being  a  foot  apart,  and  three  feet  between  the 
rows  to  allow  room  for  culture  with  a  horse-hoe,  an  acre 
would  contain  about  14,500  plants.  From  year  to  year 
the  alternate  plants,  and  after  a  time  the  alternate  rows, 
should  be  transplanted,  till  an  average  of  400  trees  to  an 
acre  was  attained,  when  the  original  occupants  of  the 
single  acre  would  cover  about  forty-three  acres.  In  fifteen 
years  from  the  time  of  first  planting  every  tree  would  fur- 
nish, at  least,  one  tie.  Supposing  every  alternate  tree  to 
be  then  cut  we  should  have  7,250  ties.  Five  years  later 
every  remaining  tree  would  furnish  two  ties  (14,500), 
making  in  all  21,750  ties  in  twenty  years  from  time  of 
planting. 

The  following  is  an  estimate  of  the  cost : 
Original  cost  of  14,500  plants  at  $5  per  1,000  $    72  OO 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


137 


Culture  for  six  years  (after  which  they  may  be  left  to  them- 
selves), say  $100  per  annum    600  00 

672  50 

Interest  on  the  above  for  twenty  years  at  10  per  cent   i>345  00 

Total  cost  of  21,750  ties  $2,017  50 

This  makes  the  cost  of  the  ties  less  than  ten  cents  each, 
but  it  will  be  observed  that  I  have  not  included  the  cost 
of  cutting  and  hewing,  or  sawing  them  out.  I  believe  that 
if  the  work  were  undertaken  in  the  comprehensive  and 
liberal  manner  which  the  truest  economy  would  dictate, 
the  proportionate  cost  of  all  the  items  of  culture  would 
be  reduced  to  such  a  degree,  and  might  be  so  relieved  by 
sales  of  crops  grown  in  the  intermediate  spaces  that  the 
cost  of  the  ties  need  not  be  more  than  the  sum  I  have 
stated.  Hickory  and  oak  saplings  are  fit  for  hoop  poles 
at  six  or  eight  years,  and  cedar,  larch,  spruce  and  fir  are 
valuable  for  fencing  stuff  at  eight  or  ten  years.  These 
should  be  planted  liberally  with  those  which  are  to  remain 
longer,  and  their  sale  would  materially  diminish  the  costs. 
But  suppose  that  no  such  aid  were  received,  and  we  allow 
the  cost  of  cutting  and  hewing  to  be  twenty  cents  for  each 
tie,  the  sum  would  then  be  thirty  cents  each,  which  is  less 
than  half  their  present  price,  which  certainly  cannot 
diminish  unless  some  new  invention  supersedes  them. 

I  am  very  confident  that  by  judicious  management  their 
final  cost  might  be  reduced  to  a  less  sum  than  my  esti- 
mate, if  not  entirely  cancelled.  An  expenditure  of  thous- 
ands now  may  save  a  future  imperative  necessity  for  the 


138 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


outlay  of  millions.  But  of  course  such  a  work  requires 
the  exercise  of  thoughtful  care  and  judicious  management. 

A  general  superintendent  should  be  appointed  who 
should  unite  the.  characteristics  of  a  thorough  man  of 
business  and  a  competent  nurserymen.  His  first  work 
should  be  the  selection  of  a  position  for  the  primary  nur- 
sery, which  should  be  fully  appointed  with  all  necessary 
buildings,  teams,  wagons,  tools  and  implements  for  thor- 
ough and  extensive  nursery  culture.  The  whole  work  of 
propagation  from  seed  or  cuttings  should  be  performed 
here,  and  from  this  point  the  secondary  nurseries,  which 
should  be  established  at  every  station  along  the  line  of 
the  road,  should  receive  their  supplies  of  young  trees. 
These  secondary  nurseries  could  be  managed  by  intelli- 
gent laborers  accustomed  to  such  work,  and  would,  of 
course,  be  under  the  supervision  of  the  superintendent, 
who  should  visit  them  as  often  as  necessary  and  direct 
their  general  management.  It  should  be  a  special  object, 
at  the  earliest  possible  moment,  to  render  the  stations 
attractive  by  tasteful  plantation  of  trees  and  shrubbery  in 
their  vicinity,  by  which  I  mean  not  merely  planting  a  few 
trees  and  shrubs  in  a  yard  adjoining  the  station,  but 
a  tasteful  disposition  of  gloves  and  groups  on  conspicu- 
ous surrounding  points  and  hillsides.  The  effect  upon 
the  mind  of  travellers,  of  such  an  oasis  in  the  desert,  is 
cheering  and  refreshing  beyond  conception,  and  in  no 
way  could  the  capacity  of  the  country  for  tree  culture  be 
so  successfully  demonstrated.  Every  station  thus  adorned, 
with  its  nursery  adjacent,  would  become  the  nucleus  of  a 
settlement;  the  opportunity  of  providing  themselves  on 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


T39 


the  spot  with  trees,  being  in  itself  a  strong  attraction  to 
settlers.  Qi  the  mode  of  supplying  them,  and  the  condi- 
tions which  should  be  insisted  upon  to  insure  proper 
planting  and  culture  I  shall  speak  hereafter,  but  before 
approaching  that  subject  I  wish  to  say  a  few  words  on  the 
mode  of  planting  which  should  be  adopted. 

Mr.  Elliott's  experiments  afford  valuable  suggestions 
as  to  the  kinds  of  trees  which  are  likely  to  prove  most 
hardy,  and  which  should  therefore  be  most  liberally  used 
as  screens  on  the  sides  which  most  need  shelter.  Some 
of  these  varieties  would  not  be  available  so  far  north  as 
the  line  of  the  Northern  Pacific,  but  I  think  the  ailantus, 
cottonwood,  box  elder,  (negundo,)  and  white  ash  would 
prove  as  reliable  as  in  Kansas,  and  should  therefore  be 
liberally  used  at  the  outset  for  screens.  They  should  oc- 
cupy the  summits  of  ridges  and  prairie  swells,  and  the 
more  tender  varieties  should  be  planted  on  the  northern 
and  eastern  slopes.  This  arrangement  may  surprise 
those  who  are  not  familiar  with  the  subject,  whose  first 
impression  would  be  that  a  warm  southern  slope  should 
be  selected  for  such  purpose,  but  I  feel  warranted  in  the 
assertion  by  long  experience  and  observation  of  facts. 
The  prevailing  wind  all  over  the  country,  which  blows 
with  the  greatest  violence  and  with  the  longest  duration 
is  from  the  S.  W.  —  and  it  is  the  wind  whose  parching  in- 
fluence is  most  detrimental  to  vegetation.  I  have  been 
surprised  to  find  what  a  comparatively  small  number  of 
persons  have  observed,  (till  their  attention  has  been 
called  to  it),  the  scriking  evidence  of  this  truth,  which  is 
afforded  by  the  attitudes  of  trees  in  exposed  situations  — 


140 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


leaning,  or  with  a  decided  tend  of  the  branches  and  spray 
toward  the  northwoct.  From  Maine  to  Colorado,  and 
from  Minnesota  to  ^exas,  one  need  never  be  long  at  a 
loss  for  the  points  of  the  compass,  who  has  learned  to 
observe  this  effect,  which  after  a  little  experience  becomes 
so  familiar  that  he  detects  it  intuitively. 

Sometimes  every  tree,  for  a  large  space,  will  have  a  de- 
cided lean  —  sometimes  individual  trees  only  exhibit  the 
effect  —  and  sometimes  the  branches  are  compressed  to- 
ward the  trunk,  on  the  windward  side,  and  spread  away 
from  it  on  the  other,  while  the  trunk  itself  is  not  affected. 
The  explanation  is  simply  that  the  season  at  which  the 
S.  W.  winds  prevail  with  greatest  frequency  and  violence, 
is  during  the  spring  and  early  summer,  when  the  tree  is 
full  of  sap,  and  the  young  shoots  are  easily  bent,  and 
have  not  yet  attained  sufficient  elasticity  to  recover  their 
natural  position.  During  many  years  that  I  was  largely 
engaged  in  fruit  growing  in  New  Jersey,  I  learned  to 
dread  this  wind  as  the  worst  enemy  of  my  crops,  and  the 
one  whose  attacks  were  especially  to  be  guarded  against. 
Further  observation  since  has  served  to  prove  that  the 
influence  of  these  winds  is  much  more  widely  extended 
than  I  at  that  time  imagined,  and  a  very  important  fact  in 
regard  to  the  modification  of  their  effects,  by  passing  over 
large  bodies  of  wood  or  water  does  not  seem  to  me  to  have 
received  the  attention  it  merits.  Wherever  the  S.  W.  wind 
strikes  upon  the  land  after  passing  over  a  large  body  of 
water  it  tends  to  ameliorate  the  climate  as  compared  with 
that  of  places  in  the  same  parallel  of  latitude  with  a  dif- 
ferent aspect  towards  the  water.    On  a  large  scale  this 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


141 


may  be  seen  by  comparison  of  the  East  and  West  coasts 
of  Continents.  Europe  receives  the  S.  W.  winds  from 
the  Altantic,  and  we  find  the  vine  and  olive  growing  in 
the  latitude  of  Boston,  which  is  that  of  central  Spain  and 
Italy.  Follow  the  same  parallel  to  our  Western  coast 
and  we  find  in  California  growing  luxuriantly  the  fruits 
which  in  Boston  can  only  be  raised  under  glass,  and  with 
artificial  heat. 

The  same  effect,  in  a  less  degree,  may  be  observed  when 
the  expanse  of  water  is  very  much  less.  At  Newport,  R. 
I.,  as  is  well  known,  many  plants  are  found  to  flourish, 
which  in  the  interior  cannot  be  grown  north  of  Philadel- 
phia. In  Nova  Scotia  (which,  like  Rhode  Island,  receives 
the  S.  W.  wind  directly  from  the  ocean),  the  English  ivy 
thrives  without  protection,  which  in  Boston  —  two  degrees 
farther  south — is  annually  killed  to  the  ground.  It  is 
common  to  attribute  this  to  the  influence  of  the  gulf  stream, 
but  the  same  result  is  found  on  the  shores  of  the  great  lakes. 
The  whole  eastern  shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  from  St.  Jo- 
seph to  the  Grand  Traverse  region,  is  the  land  of  the 
peach  and  the  grape,  and  of  a  luxuriant  forest  vegetation. 
The  S.  W.  wind  has  a  sweep  of  sixty  miles  across  the 
laKe  before  striking  the  shore,  and  the  result  is  that  for 
all  purposes  of  cultivation  the  country  is  the  same  as  the 
region  about  Philadelphia,  while  the  whole  western  shore 
from  Chicago  northward,  is  utterly  incapable  of  produc- 
ing the  more  delicate  fruits,  and  the  native  forests  are 
comparatively  confined  to  a  limited  number  of  varieties, 
and  those  of  stunted  growth.  The  influence  of  wood  land 
upon  temperature  is  of  the  same  character  as  that  of  a 


142 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


body  of  water,  and  so  far  as  opportunity  has  favored  ob- 
servation, its  benefits  are  conferred  under  similar  relative 
conditions.  The  parching  effect  of  these  winds  sweeping 
unobstructed  over  the  vast  extent  of  the  plains,  after  be- 
ing robbed  of  what  moisture  they  might  previously  have 
contained,  in  their  passage  across  the  mountains,  is  suf- 
ficient to  account  for  the  lack  of  vegetation,  and  wherever 
the  attempt  is  made  to  restore  the  soil  to  a  cultivable 
condition,  the  first  step  should  be  to  counteract  their 
blighting  influence.  The  ridges  and  uplands  should 
therefore  be  planted  with  such  varieties  of  trees  as  are 
found  most  hardy  and  least  affected,  and  the  Northern 
and  Eastern  slopes  thus  protected,  might  then  be  planted 
with  those  requiring  shelter,  with  great  certainty  of  suc- 
cessful results.  If  the  slopes  were  roughly  terraced,  as 
they  might  be,  with  a  plow,  at  no  great  cost,  the  object 
would  be  greatly  promoted,  by  the  more  permanent  re- 
tention of  the  moisture  from  rainfalls.  As  an  additional 
aid  to  this  end,  wherever  possible  a  thorough  system  of 
mulching  should  be  adopted.  Few  persons,  even  among 
practical  horticulturists,  are  aware  of  the  value  of 
this  process,  when  properly  performed.  I  have  seen 
it  practised  extensively  on  coffee  plantations  in  Cuba,  and 
have  myself  applied  it  to  vineyards  and  pear  orchards  in 
New  Jersey,  with  surprising  results.  But  what  I  mean  is 
a  very  different  process  from  simply  mulching  around  each 
tree  in  a  circle  equal  to  the  extent  of  the  branches.  The 
whole  ground  must  be  covered,  to  a  depth  sufficient  to 
prevent  the  growth  of  weeds  and  grass,  to  supersede  the 
necessity  of  cultivation  between  the  rows,  and  to  retain 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


143 


the  moisture  of  the  rainfalls  for  a  great  length  of  time, 
preventing  the  heating  and  baking  of  the  earth,  and  ef- 
fecting the  same  object  which  in  the  natural  forest  is  se- 
cured by  the  annual  fall  of  the  leaves.  No  one  who  has 
not  witnessed  the  effect  can  realise  the  amazing  difference 
in  the  health  and  vigorous  growth  of  trees  thus  treated, 
in  comparison  with  those  where  the  ground  is  left  bare. 
Wherever  it  is  possible  to  procure  material  for  the  pur- 
pose, it  should  be  applied.  Doubtless  a  great  deal  might 
be  procured  in  the  sloughs  and  swales  of  the  prairies  by- 
mowing  the  rank  grass  and  rushes  which  grow  in  such 
places,  and  with  railroad  transportation  at  command,  it 
would  not  be  difficult  to  procure  very  large  annual  sup- 
plies from  swampy  tracts  wherever  they  occurred  along 
the  line,  and  deliver  them  at  the  stations  where  they  were 
wanted.  An  experienced  Cincinnati  grape  grower  told 
me  some  twenty  years  since,  on  seeing  the  effect  of  such 
an  application  to  my  vineyards,  in  New  Jersey,  that  he 
was  richly  paid  for  his  journey  by  what  he  had  learned  of 
the  value  of  the  operation. 

The  primary  nursery  should  be  devoted  exclusively  to 
propagation  and  experimental  cultivation.  The  second- 
ary nurseries  sliould  receive  annually  from  the  primary  a 
stock  of  young  trees,  not  over  three  years  old  from  the 
seed,  sufficient  to  keep  up  their  supply  to  a  fixed  stand- 
ard to  be  determined  by  the  demands  upon  them,  which 
would  be  constantly  increasing.  These  trees  should 
remain  at  least  one  year  in  the  secondary  nursery  before 
being  sold  to  settlers  or  removed  to  the  point  where  they 
were  permanently  to  remain.    I  shall  speak  presently  of 


144 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


the  supplies  for  settlers,  which  will  require  a  very  large 
quantity.  But  beside  those,  there  should  be  annually 
planted  a  certain  proportion  of  the  land  owned  by  the 
railroad  company,  on  each  side  of  the  line.  Of  course  it 
is  desirable  that  this  should  be  as  large  as  possible,  pro- 
vided the  planting  and  culture  is  properly  attended  to. 
The  work  should  be  extended  from  year  to  year  and 
from  section  to  section  of  the  lands  belonging  to  the 
company.  The  planting  should  be  systematically  done. 
A  portion  of  every  section  should  be  reserved  for  the 
express  purpose  of  growing  timber  for  future  use  by  the 
railroad  itself.  This  would  naturally  be  on  the  side 
nearest  to  the  railroad.  On  the  rest  of  the  tract  the 
plantations  should  not  be  continuous,  but  in  groves, 
selecting  as  far  as  possible  the  northern  slopes  and  sum- 
mits of  ridges,  and  leaving  the  southern  slopes  for  cult- 
ivation. 

The  effect  of  scattered  groves  as  shelters  and  wind- 
screens would  be  much  greater  than  that  of  continuous 
wood,  while  it  would  be  much  more  attractive  to  pur- 
chasers, since  it  would  make  a  more  convenient  arrange- 
ment of  tillage  and  wood  land,  reserving  the  most 
desirable  portions  for  the  former  purpose.  The  details 
of  arrangement  of  the  plantations  would  of  course  be 
directed  by  the  superintendent,  who  it  is  to  be  presumed 
would  be  .thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  work.  A 
moment's  reflection  will  show  that  there  is  great  room 
for  the  exercise  of  judgment  in  adapting  varieties  to  con- 
ditions of  soil,  and  in  making  such  disposition  of  them 
as  to  secure  returns  at  the  earliest  possible  moment. 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


J45 


For  instance,  it  would  be  very  desirable  to  make  large 
plantations  of  white  pine,  for  future  supplies  of  timber. 
But  the  white  pine  is  of  no  value  in  its  youth,  in  fact  is 
hardly  worth  cutting  till  it  is  forty  or  fifty  years  old,  and 
does  not  come  to  maturity  till  seventy-five,  and  in  order 
to  get  the  best  timber  the  trees  should  be  ten  or  fifteen 
feet  apart.  But  this  of  course  is  unnecessary  during 
their  early  years,  and  the  intermediate  space  may  be 
filled  with  hickory,  oak,  ash,  cedar,  spruce  and  larch, 
which  may  be  removed  and  sold  for  hoop-poles,  fencing, 
posts  and  railroad  ties,  at  different  periods  from  six  to 
twenty  years  of  age,  by  which  time  the  pines  would  have 
attained  a  size  sufficient  to  require  all  the  ground,  while 
the  previous  thinnings  would  have  yielded  an  income 
sufficient  to  pay  a  handsome  interest  on  the  value  of  the 
land  for  the  time  when  it  otherwise  would  have  yielded 
no  return. 

The  above  general  process  of  extending  the  forest 
plantations  should  be  going  on  from  year  to  year  in  the 
vicinity  of  every  station,  and  for  lands  thus  planted  a 
proportionately  higher  price  should  be  demanded. 

In  addition  to  these  plantations  made  by  the  railroad 
itself  on  its  own  lands  before  offering  them  for  sale,  a 
system  should  be  adopted  for  furnishing  every  settler 
with  a  certain  number  of  trees,  proportionate  to  the 
amount  of  land  purchased  by  him  of  the  company. 
These  should  comprise  an  assortment  of  fruit  and  forest 
trees  and  shrubs,  and  should  be  put  at  the  lowest  price 
at  which  they  could  be  afforded.  They  would  add  but 
slightly  to  the  price  per  acre  in  the  purchase  of  a  quarter 

IO 


146 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


section,  and  it  would  doubtless  prove  an  attractive  feat- 
ure in  the  advertisements  of  the  company's  lands  if 
emigrants  were  informed  that  fruit  and  ornamental  trees 
enough  to  stock  the  farm  would  be  included  in  the  pur- 
chase at  so  much  an  acre. 

Of  course  the  nursery  would  be  open  to  all  customers, 
but  no  one  could  complain  at  the  preference  shown  to 
purchasers  of  railroad  lands. 

-  It  is  not  improbable  that  professional  nurserymen 
might  be  found  who  would  be  glad  to  contract  with  the 
company  to  take  charge  of  the  whole  work,  the  railroad 
furnishing  land  for  the  primary  nursery,  and  facilities  of 
transportation ;  and  the  nurseryman  furnishing  stock  and 
agreeing  to  plant  a  certain  amount  of  forest  annually  and 
attend  to  its  culture,  and  also  to  supply  to  every  settler  a 
certain  amount  of  fruit  and  forest  trees,  proportionate  to 
the  amount  of  his  land,  to  be  paid  for  by  the  company. 
This  method  might  on  some  account  be  deemed  prefer- 
able, but  I  do  not  think  the  results  would  be  likely  to  be 
as  satisfactory  as  the  other,  though  the  point  of  vital 
importance  is  the  personal  character  and  capacity  of  the 
one  in  charge.  If  he  is  an  honest  man  of  efficient  execu- 
tive ability,  and  familiar  with  the  practical  requirements 
of  the  work,  it  will  be  likely  to  be  well  done,  whether  he 
takes  it  on  contract  or  as  an  employed  superintendent. 
The  work  is  so  vast  and  involves  so  much  which  must  be 
learned  by  experiment,  that  it  is  hardly  possible  that  any 
one  can  escape  errors,  and  it  is  all  important  that  the 
unavoidable  difficulties  should  not  be  complicated  by 
inefficient  management  and  false  economy.    If  the  work 


FOREST  PLANTING. 


1 47 


is  undertaken  carelessly,  without  the  preparation  of  a 
general  system  and  organization,  it  may  accomplish 
nothing  beyond  the  expenditure  of  a  large  amount  of 
money  with  no  satisfactory  results.  If,  on  the  contrary, 
it  is  begun  and  prosecuted  in  a  wise  and  liberal  spirit  — 
proceeding  cautiously  in  cases  of  doubt,  and  with  all  the 
energy  of  abundant  force  when  doubt  is  removed  —  there 
need  be  no  apprehension  that  the  result  will  not  be  com- 
mensurate with  the  magnitude  and  grandeur  of  the  work, 
whether  considered  merely  as  a  pecuniary  investment  for 
the  benefit  of  the  stockholders,  or  as  a  national  benefit 
by  the  conversion  of  an  uninhabitable  desert  into  a 
region  of  agricultural  wealth  capable  of  supporting  a 
dense  population.  Whether  as  a  means  of  attracting 
settlers  and  adding  to  the  value  of  their  lands,  or  of 
providing  timber  for  their  own  future  wants,  and  the 
demands  of  roads  which  in  time  will  certainly  intersect 
the  country  in  every  direction,  it  is  obvious  that  to  forego 
the  advantages  which  may  thus  be  secured,  is  indicative 
of  a  "  penny  wise  and  pound  foolish "  policy  which  is 
inconsistent  with  the  energy  and  enterprise  which  resulted 
in  the  construction  of  the  trans-continental  railroads. 


